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Elon Musk will move SpaceX headquarters from Delaware to Texas, seeking to further limit exposure to the state after a judge rejected his $56 billion pay package from Tesla last month.
Musk, the world’s richest man, last week moved the headquarters of his brain implant company Neuralink from Delaware to Nevada. SpaceX is a much bigger business: a valuation of nearly $200 billion makes it one of the most valuable private companies in the world.
“If your company is still registered in Delaware, I recommend moving to another state as soon as possible,” Musk wrote on X on Wednesday.
SpaceX, whose headquarters is in Southern California, is the latest of Musk’s half-dozen companies planning to split from Delaware, the small eastern state that has long been a favored domicile of large corporations thanks in part to a regime transparency of corporate law, years of legal precedent and a community of lawyers.
The moves come after a Delaware judge, Kathaleen McCormick, overturned an expected $56 billion award from Tesla, the electric car company he runs, late last month. McCormick ruled that Musk had exercised undue control over the company’s board of directors despite him owning a minority of Tesla. He was the “paradigmatic ‘Superstar CEO,’” she wrote in the ruling.
Following McCormick’s decision, Musk said other founders should form their companies “in Nevada or Texas if you prefer to let shareholders decide matters” in a post on X, the social media platform he owns also owner. Musk has also pledged to hold a vote for Tesla shareholders on moving the automaker’s headquarters to Texas, a process that is likely to be more complex given that Tesla is a public company.
Texas has recently sought to position itself as a rival to Delaware’s business-friendly reputation. The state passed legislation signed by the governor to create a new Texas Business Court that will hear business disputes with specialized judges. State officials have actively touted the new court to companies domiciled elsewhere as sophisticated and efficient, although the details of the body and how it will work are still being worked out.
Two of Musk’s other companies – X and xAI, the artificial intelligence start-up for which he is trying to raise billions of dollars – are incorporated in Nevada.
SpaceX’s move was first reported by Bloomberg News.