2024-07-17 11:14:49
Elon Musk has increasingly become a leading figure of the American right. Now he is allowing more companies to move away from liberal California.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk is also moving the headquarters of his space company SpaceX and the online platform X from California to Texas. Musk justified this by referring to a law that California Governor Gavin Newsom signed last Monday. In a post on X, Musk described the law as an “attack on families and companies”. This is the last straw.
The California law prohibits school districts from requiring their employees to disclose information about a student’s sexual orientation or gender identity without their consent. Supporters of the law say it protects children from being forced to come out and creates a safe place for them at school. Critics say it violates parents’ right to be informed.
Musk is politically right-wing and supports Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (read more about his surprising connection to Donald Trump here). The governor of California, on the other hand, is a Democrat. Musk has already railed against measures in the past that adjust gender characteristics to people’s feelings, especially in young people.
But Musk also complained about crime in Los Angeles in his post about his companies’ move: “I’m tired of dodging gangs of violent drug addicts just to get in and out of the building,” Musk wrote.
SpaceX’s headquarters were previously in Hawthorne in the greater Los Angeles area – even though most of the facilities were already located in Texas. This newly constructed location, called “Starbase”, will also be the company’s headquarters in the future.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, shared Musk’s post on X and said SpaceX’s move “cements Texas as a leader in space exploration.”
Musk is also the head of the electric car manufacturer Tesla – and has already had the company move from Palo Alto in California’s Silicon Valley to Austin.