Elon Musk said on Tuesday he had relocated to Texas from California, where he plans to focus more on the new Tesla plant and his SpaceX venture.
The billionaire confirmed the move in an interview with Matt Murray, the Wall Street Journal’s editor in chief.
“The two biggest things that I got going on right now are the Starship development in south Texas … and then the big new US factory for Tesla,” the 49-year-old CEO said.
“It wasn’t necessarily a great use of my time here [in California].”
Speaking at a Wall Street Journal summit, Musk also had some sharp words for his former home state. “If a team is winning for too long, they tend to get complacent,” Musk said, according to the Verge. “California has been winning for a long time, and I think they’re taking it for granted.”
Texas might potentially offer some tax reprieve for the world’s second richest man. It does not collect personal income tax, while California has some of the highest state tax rates in the United States.
A 670% rally in Tesla shares this year has boosted Musk’s net worth from $27bn to $155bn, just behind Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
In a conversation touching a wide range of topics including government intervention, technology companies and corporate policy, Musk criticized CEOs of other US companies for not focusing enough on their products.
“If you find yourself spending a lot of time giving presentations and reviewing spreadsheets, you’re barking up the wrong tree,” Musk said.
On Tesla’s move to raise $5bn in capital, he said: “We thought we can retire a lot of the debt and increase the security of the company … have more of a war chest.”
