ELON MUSK PULLS COMPANIES FROM CALIFORNIA AFTER GAVIN NEWSOM SIGNS NEW LAW
Elon Musk said on Tuesday in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that he plans to move his company SpaceX headquarters from California over what he said was a new law in the state that was "attacking both families and companies."
The CEO of the rocket manufacturer appeared to reference a piece of legislation that California's Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law on Monday—AB 1955 also known as Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today's Youth (SAFETY) Act.
The law aims to prohibit "school districts from enacting forced outing policies" of students with regard to their gender identity, provide "resources for parents and students to manage conversations about gender and identity privately" and protect "teachers and school staff from retaliation if they refuse to forcibly out a student," according to a statement by Assemblymember Chris Ward who introduced the legislation.
Posting on X, Musk suggested that the law was an attack on families in the state.
"This is the final straw," he 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."
In a follow-up post, Musk said that he had warned Newsom what could happen if such legislation became law.
"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 said.
Newsweek contacted Newsom's office for comment via email on Tuesday.
Musk later also said that he planned to move the social media X, a company that he owns, to Austin, Texas.
It's unclear how many employees will have to decamp to Texas should the plan come to fruition. SpaceX has thousands of employees under staff, according to market data platform PitchBook.
SpaceX was founded by Musk more than 20 years ago.
"The company designs and manufactures reusable space launch vehicles for the transport of cargo, humans, and payloads into space with features including an attached trunk, a parachute system, multiple engines, and oxygen-based propellants, enabling space industries to experience and benefit from affordable spaceflights," according to a PitchBook description.
SpaceX, on its website, boasts as "the only private company capable of returning a spacecraft from low-Earth orbit, and in 2012 our Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to and from the International Space Station."
It went on to point out that in 2020, "SpaceX became the first private company to take humans there as well. Click through the timeline above to see some of our milestone accomplishments."
Update 7/16/24, 4:40 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional context and information.
2024-07-16T19:56:39Z dg43tfdfdgfd