“If a team has been winning for too long, they tend to get complacent and then they don’t win the championship anymore. California has been winning for too long,” Musk said at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council annual summit.
Musk has repeatedly criticized California’s overburdened regulatory environment but said both his flagship companies Tesla and SpaceX will continue their operations in the state.
Musk said Tesla and SpaceX are the last car and aerospace company, respectively, still manufacturing in California.
“California used to be the center of aerospace manufacturing! My companies are the last two left. That’s a very important point to make,” he said.
Earlier, the 49-year-old billionaire tech tycoon reportedly told confidants that he was planning to make a permanent move to Texas, after apparently becoming fatigued by California regulations and high taxes.
Musk has significant involvement in Texas, with his SpaceX program operating in the state since 2003, as his Starship Production Complex launch site is located in the coastal village of Boca Chica, near Brownsville, on the Gulf of Mexico.
In May, Musk said in a tweet that Tesla had filed a lawsuit against Alameda County and would move its headquarters and future projects to Texas or Nevada in response to the local health officer saying that Tesla's factory could not resume work due to COVID-19 restrictions aimed to combat the infection, which remained in place until 31 May.
Tesla is filing a lawsuit against Alameda County immediately. The unelected & ignorant “Interim Health Officer” of Alameda is acting contrary to the Governor, the President, our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2020
Musk's decision of the Tesla HQ relocation to Texas or Nevada came after Alameda County Health Officer Erica Pan banned the company from reopening its factory, despite California's Governor Gavin Newsom allowing some businesses, including manufacturers, to reopen.
Musk has been critical of the lockdown measures and stay at home order, dubbing them 'fascist', and called on the government to stop taking away people’s freedom.
