Elon Musk To Move X Headquarters From San Francisco To Austin

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Elon Musk plans to move the headquarters of two more companies out of California, including X, the San Francisco-born social media company formerly known as Twitter, the billionaire announced Tuesday.

Musk, the wealthiest man in the world, had already moved the headquarters of Tesla from Palo Alto to Austin in a spat over California's COVID policies.

See Also: Tesla To Move HQ From Palo Alto To Austin, Elon Musk Says

He made both announcements Tuesday on X, starting with SpaceX. In a brief post, Musk said he would move the SpaceX headquarters from Hawthorne to Starbase, Texas, because of a new state law that bars school districts from informing parents if a child begins to identify as a different gender than assigned at birth.

"This is the final straw," Musk wrote. "Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas."

Assembly Bill 1955, also known as the Support Academic Futures & Educators for Today’s Youth (SAFETY) Act, was signed into law by Gov. Newsom on Monday. The first-of-its-kind legislation prohibits all California school districts from adopting "parental notification policies," which proponents say can amount to a forced "outing" that can put a child's safety in jeopardy.

Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego) introduced the bill in response to policies proposed or adopted in over a dozen school districts that required teachers and staff to inform parents if their child identified as transgender or requests to be identified by a different name or pronoun at school.

See Also: Forced 'Outing' Of LGBTQ+ Students Banned In California

In a second post Tuesday, Musk said he would also move X from its longtime headquarters on San Francisco's Market Street to Austin, saying he "had enough of dodging gangs of violent drug addicts to get in and out of the building."

The billionaire previously sparred with the city after erecting a giant "X" atop the building shortly after taking control of the company, resulting in two dozen complaints about the sign's flashing lights and structural safety concerns, which led to its removal. Earlier this year, the company that owns the Market Street property sued X for $13.6 million, alleging unpaid rent.

Musk did not discuss the future of Neuralink, his San Francisco-based company which bills itself as pioneering brain-computer interfaces. He has also moved his residence from California to Texas, where there is no state personal income tax.

Patch editors Toni McAllister and Rachel Barnes and the Associated Press contributed to this report.