Elon Musk vowed to move the headquarters of X and SpaceX from California to Texas, and seems confident that other bosses will do the same.
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When Tesla shareholders took Elon Musk's side in a vote last month to reincorporate the company in Texas, the world's richest person sounded a hopeful tune: "I think we're not just opening a new chapter for Tesla, we're starting a new book."
He'll be hoping his people side with him again on his latest brainwave. Musk said on Tuesday he was ready to shift the headquarters of two of his other companies — X and SpaceX — from California to the Lone Star State.
In a post on X, he claimed the trigger was the passing of a new gender identity law in California on Monday that attacked "both families and companies," though it's clear Musk's exit from the Golden State has been on the cards for some time.
Plans for X to sublease its San Francisco offices emerged this month, while a broader vexation about "violent crime" in the city has weighed on Musk for more than a year.
Musk has already undertaken this relocation exercise before, moving Tesla's headquarters from California to Austin in 2021. But by shifting his two other major companies there, he will look to establish Texas as Musk Country.
Musk is betting others will follow suit. In an X post he confidently asserted that "many will follow" him to Texas in response to a post from venture capitalist Jason Calacanis saying he was "done with California" for the same reason Musk cited.
The Tesla chief already knows the shareholder base is very animated about Texas, of course.
More votes poured in from shareholders on the topic of the electric vehicle maker's reincorporation in the state than they did for a decision on Musk's multibillion pay package, per charts he shared on the shareholder resolutions presented at last month's Tesla annual meeting.
Musk seems to have succeeded in rallying others around other causes in recent times, too. Some tech leaders have boosted support for Donald Trump following Musk's loud tirades on X in support of the Republican presidential nominee.
A Wall Street Journal report that Musk would donate about $45 million a month to a pro-Trump political action committee has been followed by reports of other tech leaders, such as Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, preparing to do the same.
However, it remains to be seen whether Musk can rally others to follow his companies to Texas for the long haul.
While some tech firms opted to move to Texas during the pandemic, there have been signs of growing frustrations among workers who have found that places like Austin have struggled to meet the high expectations they had of a post-Silicon Valley life.
Other tech companies, like Oracle, meanwhile, have decided to do the opposite. The tech giant led by Larry Ellison shifted its headquarters from Redwood City, California to Austin in 2020, but announced in April that it was moving again to Nashville.
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Ellison — who's seventh on Bloomberg's list of billionaires worth $158 billion — chose Nashville because it was a "fabulous place to live," raise a family, and have significant exposure to the healthcare industry Oracle is invested in.
Time will tell if Musk follows through on his vow to move X and SpaceX south. Failing to do so would not be the first time he's said one thing and done another, though.
