Elon Musk reportedly plans to shut down X’s San Francisco office in his ongoing clash with California Gov. Gavin Newsom after the state passed a controversial student gender identity law.
In a staff memo on Monday, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said the office closure will occur “over the next few weeks” and described the decision as “the right one for our company in the long term.”
“For those based in San Francisco, I know this will impact you all in different ways. Leadership is actively working on plans, including transportation options, for those directly impacted,” Yaccarino added in the memo, according to a copy obtained by Fortune.
Elon Musk slammed California for passing a student gender identity law. AP
Last month, Musk announced he would relocate the social media app’s headquarters to Texas, calling Newsom’s decision the “final straw.”
The new law blocks school districts from requiring teachers to notify parents about changes in a student’s gender identity or sexual orientation without the child’s permission.
Yaccarino said X would transfer operations to new “primary locations” for its Bay Area employees, including an existing office in San Jose, as well as a “new engineering-focused shared space” in Palo Alto that was supposed to house Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI.
The Post reached out to X for comment.
The billionaire also ripped living conditions in crime-riddled San Francisco while announcing the move.
“Have had enough of dodging gangs of violent drug addicts just to get in and out of the building,” Musk wrote on X on July 16.
Musk has repeatedly clashed with local authorities since buying the company formerly known as Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022.
Last month, he publicly blasted Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to sign the student gender notification ban into law and said he would relocate both X as well as privately held SpaceX to Texas.
Musk claimed he made “it clear to Governor Newsom about a year ago that laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children.”
X, previously known as Twitter, had maintained its flagship office in San Francisco for years. AFP via Getty Images
Last year, SRI Nine Market Square, the firm that owns the building that houses X headquarters on San Francisco’s Market Street, filed suit against Musk’s firm for allegedly missing rent payments.
The landlord dropped the suit in March.
Separately on Monday, Musk filed a new lawsuit against OpenAI and co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman — just weeks after he dropped a similar lawsuit against the firm behind ChatGPT.
The case filed in California by Musk — who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but later exited its board due to disagreements over its direction — describes his dispute with Altman and others as a “textbook tale of altruism versus greed.”
Musk’s lawyers allege OpenAI and its leaders “intentionally courted and deceived” him into bankrolling the startup to the tune of more than $44 million in its early years.
The suit claims Altman and his allies said they would develop advanced AI for the benefit of mankind — only to ditch that mission in order to enrich themselves and key investor Microsoft.