Elon Musk Says X, SpaceX Moving Headquarters Out Of California
Two major technology companies will move their headquarters from California to Texas, according to their CEO, Elon Musk.
The mercurial billionaire posted on the X social media platform he will relocate SpaceX, the private space company Musk founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2002, from its longtime home state.
He also revealed plans to move the social media company formerly known as Twitter to Austin.
The decision came, Musk wrote, after California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that bans schools from telling parents about students receiving gender-affirming care.
This is the final straw.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 16, 2024
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. https://t.co/cpWUDgBWFe
Starbase is the commercial spaceport that SpaceX has been developing in Brownsville, Texas, for the past decade. The company has been planning a $100M office building in Starbase, the Houston Chronicle reported in February.
SpaceX occupies a roughly 1M SF former Boeing factory in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne. The building was sold in 2014, before subsequent expansions, to New Jersey-based Chambers Street Properties for $47M.
In a subsequent post, Musk declared that X Corp., the social media company he bought for $44B in 2022, would also move its headquarters. The company has long been based in San Francisco, but Musk said it will move to Austin.
“Have had enough of dodging gangs of violent drug addicts just to get in and out of the building,” Musk wrote.
The moves come after Musk in 2021 moved electric vehicle maker Tesla's headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin.
While Musk's announcement framed the decision to relocate the companies as in response to Newsom's bill signing, his companies have been working in the background to make the moves happen.
X has listed its entire 800K SF headquarters in San Francisco, at 1355 Market St. and 1 10th St., for sublease, the San Francisco Chronicle reported last week. It expanded its lease in 2022 at the complex, owned by Shorenstein Properties.
The social media company has been inquiring about office space in Austin, looking for roughly 500K SF in the Texas capital, The Real Deal reported.
A spokesperson for Musk's companies didn't immediately respond to Bisnow's request for comment.
CORRECTION, AUG. 5, 10:30 P.M. ET: A previous version of this story misstated the year SpaceX was founded. It has been updated to the correct year, 2002.
