Elon Musk said on Tuesday that he will move the headquarters of SpaceX and X to Texas in response to a new California law banning schools from notifying parents if their child starts identifying as a different gender.
SpaceX, which employs thousands of employees, is based in Los Angeles County. X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter, is based in San Francisco. Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002 and bought Twitter in 2022, announced the move on social media a day after California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the controversial legislation into law.
“This is the final straw,” Musk said. “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.”
“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,” he added.
The announcement comes a few years after Musk already moved the headquarters of another of companies, Tesla, from California to Texas.
The California law in question — AB 1955, dubbed the SAFETY Act — makes California the first state in the country to ban school districts from requiring that teachers tell parents if their children do things like change the pronouns they use or go by a different gender than what is tied to their school record.
During the pandemic, several companies relocated from California to states like Texas and Florida that have lower taxes, regulations, and more relaxed COVID-19 business restrictions.