After spending his most life in California, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has finally relocated to Texas, calling California ‘complacent’.
Revealing this for the first time during an interview for The Wall Street Journal’s annual CEO Council summit, Musk said: “California has been winning for a long time, and I think they’re taking it for granted”.
Criticizing California’s economic environment, Musk added. “If a team is winning for too long, they tend to get complacent”.
Musk stated that Silicon Valley was declining in relevance, The Verge reported on Tuesday. It was reported earlier that he sold all his properties in California for a combined $62.5 million.
Last week, CNBC reported that Musk is planning to leave California and move to Texas that has no state income tax, a move that could save him billions of Musk last month surpassed Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to become the second-richest person in the world.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index put the Tesla chief executive with a $127.9 billion fortune above Gates at $127.7 billion for the first time.
The 49-year-old entrepreneur has added more than $100 billion to his net worth since January 2020, making him one of the fastest-growing among the world’s 500 richest people.
The move to Texas makes sense for him as it has no state income tax while California has the highest tax regime in the country. Musk also cited the construction of a new Tesla factory outside Austin, as well as Space X’s planned launch site near the South Texas village of Boca Chica, as a reason for his relocation.
Musk frequently visits Texas where Tesla and his startup Boring Company have operations and also a SpaceX facility that began its operations in 2003.
