SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk poses as he arrives on the red carpet for the Axel Springer Awards ceremony, in Berlin, on December 1, 2020.
Britta Pedersen | AFP | Getty Images
Elon Musk said Tuesday that while SpaceX and Tesla maintain major operations in California today, he has personally moved to Texas.
“If a team has been winning for too long, they tend to get complacent and then they don’t win the championship anymore. California has been winning for too long,” Musk said at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council summit, repeating an analogy he has used many times before to express his displeasure with California’s regulatory environment.
“First of all, Tesla and SpaceX obviously have massive operations in California. Tesla is the last car company still manufacturing cars in California. SpaceX is still the last aerospace company still doing manufacturing in California,” he added. “California used to be the center of aerospace manufacturing! My companies are the last two left. That’s a very important point to make.”
CNBC reported last week that Musk told friends he intended to relocate to Texas and was already spending time there.
Musk, the world’s second-wealthiest person behind Amazon’s Jeff Bezos spends most of his time in Texas between Austin, where Tesla and his tunnel start-up Boring Company have operations, and a coastal village called Boca Chica, home to a SpaceX facility. SpaceX started operating in Texas in 2003.
The move makes Musk part of a broader tech exodus from Silicon Valley, with many executives and venture capitalists moving to Texas. It could also save Musk billions of dollars in taxes.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.