Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk announced that the headquarters of SpaceX will relocate to Texas, along with X, formerly known as Twitter, which is moving to Austin.
He states that a new California law that affects families and children is the reason he made this decision.
He explained that the change was brought about by recent state legislation, namely a new law that forbids schools from enacting policies compelling employees to disclose a student’s gender identity to any third party, including parents.
According to a governor’s spokesperson, the measure “protects the critical role of parents while keeping children safe.”
However, Elon Musk described it as “the last straw” in a social media statement. The billionaire, who resides in Texas and does not pay income taxes there, previously relocated Tesla’s headquarters there in 2021.
In the US, there is a lot of discussion concerning what parents should be informed by their children’s schools about their gender identification.
While some LGBTQ activists contend that students have a right to privacy, others counter that parents should know about what is going on with their kids.
“It protects the child-parent relationship by preventing politicians and school staff from unnecessarily intervening in family matters and attempting to control if, when, and how families have extremely personal conversations,” Brandon Richards said to the Associated Press.
The father of a transgender daughter, Elon Musk, has previously stated that he “supports trans” but expressed irritation with pronouns, calling them “an aesthetically terrible nightmare.”
In 2022, the billionaire’s daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson filed for divorce.
During her formal application to alter her name and gender, she stated that she no longer wished to “be related to my biological father in any way, shape, or form”.
Elon Musk declared last year that he would push for the criminalization of transgender medical care.
In a post on X on Tuesday, he stated, “SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California to Starbase, Texas, because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies.” He has previously stated his objection to the bill.
Social media users chastised Elon Musk’s choice, according to California Governor Gavin Newsom.
He shared a screenshot of a 2022 tweet from Donald Trump saying Elon Musk would “drop to [his] knees and beg” if he requested, coupled with the words “You bent the knee.”
The Texas Association of Business’s president and CEO, Glenn Hamer, stated, “It proves that Texas is the greatest state in the universe for business. When it comes to job announcements, this has to rank among the greatest days in Texas history.”
“It’s a tragedy in California. Texas will have a $20 billion budget surplus in the coming year, for a cause, I mean. California will have a budget deficit of $35 billion. This is our course of study. Texas will surpass California in the next 20 years, most likely in the next 15 years, according to Hamer, in terms of both GDP and population.
Elon Musk’s pledge on moving headquarters
In the past, states have actively fought to attract corporations to locate their headquarters and bring high-paying corporate employment with them.
State documents show that SpaceX, which employs over 5,000 people in California, already has a sizable operational presence in Texas.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott responded to Musk’s pledge by saying, “This cements Texas as the leader in space exploration.”
Regarding whether the choice to relocate headquarters will result in employment layoffs in California, neither SpaceX nor X responded to requests for comment.
The action was taken in response to Mr. Musk’s official endorsement of Donald Trump for president on Saturday, which came after his assassination attempt.
On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Elon Musk would be contributing $45 million a month to his campaign.
Elon Musk reacted on X with a meme that suggested the allegation was untrue, but he then appeared to hint there was some validity to the assertion by endorsing a post that stated he was offering millions of dollars to support Trump’s election.
Read More: Sam Altman openAI: The Next Marvel Villain? Scarlett Johansson’s Opinion
Source
BBC News
