Elon Musk–founded SpaceX today took its first step toward officially dumping Delaware and moving the commercial space exploration company to Texas. Meanwhile, SpaceX registered plans to build a $100 million office in Brownsville, Texas, with construction starting next week.
Musk has been feuding with Delaware since a judge in the state’s chancery court voided his $55.8 billion pay package last month, jeopardizing his status as world’s richest man. After the ruling, he pledged to leave the state entirely and has since moved his brain-interface company Neuralink to Nevada. Today’s plan to transfer SpaceX’s incorporation to Texas is the next shoe to drop. Musk has already said Tesla will move its incorporation to Texas, where the company has headquarters, in Austin. Tesla’s move promises to be more complicated than those of Neuralink and SpaceX, requiring approval from stockholders.
Some 350 miles away from Austin, Musk hopes to expand further into Texas. SpaceX registered plans yesterday to build a five-story office mezzanine and a 1-million-square-foot industrial factory in Brownsville. The area is already home to a production and development center that spans 20 miles and allows for testing of SpaceX Starship rockets, reported the Dallas Morning News. According to the Texas state filing, construction on the SpaceX office is expected to wrap up in January 2025.
The Morning News reported that Musk has been agitating to get a portion of Brownsville and nearby Boca Chica on the Gulf Coast renamed as Starbase. The moniker is a hat tip to the financial investment Musk and his companies have made in the region.
SpaceX’s Texas filing listed Jin Yi, senior mechanical engineer at SpaceX and a former executive at real estate and management company GID, as the contact on the Brownsville project. Yi did not respond to a message for comment.