Elon Musk said just last month that he was sick of seeing “violent drug addicts” on his way to X’s headquarters in San Francisco. Now, he’s moving out for good.
As first reported by The New York Times, X will shut its San Francisco office over the next few weeks.
In an internal email obtained by the media organization, X’s chief executive Linda Yaccarino said workers – hopefully, warned well in advance – would have to move to the company’s offices in San Jose, another city in California.
According to the email, engineers will work in a new office in Palo Alto, which they will share with xAI, Musk's artificial intelligence outfit. Yaccarono said it was the right decision for the company in the long term.
However, it might be related to Musk’s personal attitude toward California, a state he seems to sincerely despise.
In July, the billionaire already said he would move X’s headquarters to Texas after California passed a law that bans school districts from requiring teachers to notify parents if their children change their gender identification.
Musk first posted, “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 headquarters from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas.”
This is the final straw.
undefined Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 16, 2024
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. https://t.co/cpWUDgBWFe
He then added that X will also move out: “Have had enough of dodging gangs of violent drug addicts just to get in and out of the building.”
On Monday, Musk said on X that he essentially had no choice but to move because “it is impossible to operate in San Francisco if you’re processing payments,” appearing to blame the city’s tax policy.
Quite a few companies are indeed leaving the Bay Area and California. Chevron, the multinational oil-and-gas provider first incorporated in San Francisco in 1879, said last week it was moving its headquarters to Texas.
"We believe California has a number of policies that raise costs, that hurt consumers, that discourage investment and ultimately we think that's not good for the economy in California and for consumers," Chevron CEO Mike Wirth told the Wall Street Journal.
Wirth chose not to mention the fact that California sued US oil companies, including Chevron, last year, claiming they deceived the public about the risks of fossil fuels. Obviously, staying in California would probably prove costly to the polluting oil giant.
San Francisco is where X, formerly known as Twitter, was founded back in 2006. It moved its headquarters to the city’s Mid-Market neighborhood in 2012 after winning a payroll tax break.
But since Musk bought the company in 2022, the company has been skipping rent payments to Shorenstein, the real estate company that manages X’s office building. The Washington Post also reported that X only had about 120 employees left in San Francisco.
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