Elon Musk to Move X, SpaceX out of California Over Student Gender Identity Law

Elon Musk speaks with other delegates during day one of the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in Bletchley, England, on Nov. 1, 2023. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Elon Musk said he will move the headquarters of his social media company X and rocket company Space X out of California.

In a July 16 post on X, Mr. Musk said SpaceX will move from Hawthorne, California, to “Starbase,” a sprawling company town near Brownsville, Texas. X will move its headquarters from San Francisco to Austin.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott applauded the decision, saying it will “cement Texas as the leader in space exploration.”

The announcement came a day after California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law that prohibits school districts from requiring teachers and staff to disclose a student’s gender identity or sexual orientation to anyone without the child’s permission. The law will take effect in January.

“LGBTQ+ pupils have the right to express themselves freely at school without fear, punishment, or retaliation, including that teachers or administrators might ‘out’ them without their permission,” the law states. “Policies that require outing pupils without their consent violate pupils’ rights to privacy and self-determination.”

Proponents of the legislation said it protects students identifying as LGBTQ from being unwillingly outed to their families. Its opponents, meanwhile, argued that the change undermines the trust between schools and parents, who will now be kept in the dark about their children’s gender transitions.

Accusing the new law of “attacking both families and companies,” Mr. Musk called it the “final straw” that facilitated his exodus.

In a follow up post, the billionaire said he warned the governor “about a year ago that laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children.”

“Who would want to risk the state taking away their kids?” he wrote.

Mr. Musk also took issue with the safety in downtown San Fransisco. “Have had enough of dodging gangs of violent drug addicts just to get in and out of the building,” he added.

The announcement that X could leave San Francisco didn’t come as much of a surprise. Earlier this week, it was reported that the social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, has tapped JLL to market its entire 800,000-square-foot headquarters complex at the California city for sublease.

The listing will include the 460,000 square feet of office space X occupies inside the iconic Art Deco building known as Market Square at 1355 Market Street and an attached building of 330,000 square feet at 1 Tenth Street that the company previously made available for sublease, the report said.

Tesla, the electric car and solar panel company Mr. Musk runs, relocated its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin in 2021. The move followed a dispute with local public health authorities over reopening a Tesla factory during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Separately, Tesla changed its legal home to Texas from Delaware earlier this year. Mr. Musk pushed for the change after a Delaware judge struck down his $56-billion pay package, which was eventually approved by the company’s shareholders.