AUSTIN, Texas — Billionaire Elon Musk is planning to relocate two more of his companies to Texas.
Musk made the announcement on his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, citing a new California law as "the final straw."
"This is the final straw. 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," Musk wrote on X on July 16.
The law Musk is against is California AB1955, which bans school districts from requiring staff to notify parents if their children change their gender identification.
Musk-owned companies Tesla and The Boring Company are already headquartered in Central Texas.
Now, Musk says he plans on moving the headquarters for X to Austin, relocating the social media giant from its current headquarters in San Francisco, as well as moving the headquarters for Space X to Starbase, Texas, located near Brownsville.
Economic leaders say there are a lot of advantages to doing business in Texas, saying that plenty of money can be saved by moving to the Lone Star State.
"Texas government listens to business, and if business deals tells or asks Texas government, 'This is what we need to make these big investments,' [the] Texas government listens, it makes its judgments and it says 'yes or no.' And Elon Musk likes that," said Kishore Gawande, a University of Texas at Austin professor and the chair of the Department of Business, Government and Society.
Stacy Schmitt, the senior vice president of Opportunity Austin, said the state offers much less of a regulatory framework, making it an attractive place for employers.
"There're less burdens from a financial standpoint, and then their employees also have a positive impact," Scmitt said. "And when they're saving that money, then they can reinvest in innovation infrastructure for our community and they give back to the other businesses within our community."
Schmitt is excited for the possible jobs these companies could usher in.
"Whether they're looking at someone with a four year computer science degree, engineering degree, [or] some of those that need different type of technical skills ... it helps increase our workforce development pipeline overall," Schmitt said.
The growth could lead to higher rent and cost of living, but Gawande still believes these are the right moves in terms of prosperity.
"I think Austin's government is a progressive government, it's got its own ways of figuring this out," Gawande said. "It'll end very well on our taxes."
Boomtown is KVUE's series covering the explosive growth in Central Texas. For more Boomtown stories, head to KVUE.com/Boomtown.
