Billionaire Elon Musk announced plans to relocate the headquarters of SpaceX and X from California to Texas.
SpaceX will move from Hawthorne, California to its rocket launch site known as Starbase based in Texas, while X will move from San Francisco to Austin.
Driving the news: Musk made the decision after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law that prohibits schools from notifying parents about their child’s gender identification change.
- He said the law was the “final straw” and previously warned Newsom that such legislation would prompt families and companies to leave California to safeguard their children.
Flashback: In 2021, Tesla, where Musk serves as CEO, relocated its corporate headquarters from Palo Alto, California to Austin, Texas.
State of play: SpaceX conducts the construction and launch of its Starship rockets at Starbase in Texas, located near Boca Chica Beach at the Mexican border.
- While the larger Starship rockets are launched from the southern tip of Texas, SpaceX’s smaller Falcon 9 rockets take off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, as well as Southern California.
- Starbase in Texas is situated just below South Padre Island, approximately 20 miles away from Brownsville.
What they’re saying: “I did make it clear to Governor Newsom about a year ago that laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children,” Musk wrote on X.
- Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher criticized Newsom for Musk’s decision.
- “Gavin Newsom’s anti-parent agenda isn’t just bad for families – now it’s doing serious damage to California’s economy,” Gallagher said. “With the highest unemployment rate in the nation, you’d think our governor would be doing everything possible to protect jobs. Instead, he’s pandering to extremists in his party by cutting parents out of their kids’ education and driving even more businesses to pack up for other states.”
