Private rocket company SpaceX has shifted its headquarters to Texas from Delaware, its founder Elon Musk said Wednesday, weeks after a Delaware judge voided his pay package at Tesla, another company he owns.
Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson issued a certificate Wednesday confirming that the state accepted the company's request to relocate its constitution, according to a copy of the document that was posted on her office's website. A spokeswoman for Nelson's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Musk, a billionaire who lives in Texas and also runs the automaker Tesla, has had trouble with Delaware. Last month, a judge voided the pay package that had helped him become the richest person in the world.
That case was brought by a group of Tesla shareholders who were challenging a stock option package that allowed Musk to acquire about 304 million Tesla shares at a preset price ($23.34 per share) if the company achieved certain goals. The judge ultimately ruled that Musk had effectively overseen his own compensation plan, valued at more than $50 billion last month, with the help of compliant board members.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Musk moved Tesla's headquarters to Texas from California, although saying last year that the automaker would move a component of that operation (its engineering headquarters) back to California.
He has also said he wants to bring Tesla back to Texas from Delaware. But since Tesla, unlike SpaceX, is publicly traded, the move Requires shareholder approval..
SpaceX still designs and builds its spacecraft at its headquarters in Hawthorne, California, a city near Los Angeles International Airport.
Musk announced SpaceX's corporate relocation to Texas hours before the company launched a robotic lander that will attempt to transport NASA payloads to the moon. The launch time was postponed to early Thursday morning from Wednesday due to a technical problem.