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Elon Musk's SpaceX files to register company in Texas

February 15, 2024

SpaceX has filed to change the company's state of registration from Delaware to Texas. It comes after a Delaware court ruling threw out Musk's massive pay package at Tesla that shareholders argued was excessive.

https://p.dw.com/p/4cPZp
Elon Musk, seen here, 2018 pay package from Tesla made him the world's richest man
Elon Musk's 2018 pay package from Tesla made him the world's richest man Image: Alain Jocard/AFP

Elon Musk's private space company SpaceX has filed to change its incorporation location to the US state of Texas from Delaware.

"SpaceX has moved its state of incorporation from Delaware to Texas! If your company is still incorporated in Delaware, I recommend moving to another state as soon as possible," Musk wrote.

It's the latest move by Musk following a Delaware court ruling in January that blocked Musk's landmark compensation package at his electric car company Tesla. 

The package was worth around $56 billion (€52 billion) in options and shareholders argued the package was excessive.

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Musk earlier this month put up a poll on X asking if Tesla should move its registation to Texas, where it is already headquartered.

"The public vote is unequivocally in favor of Texas! Tesla will move immediately to hold a shareholder vote to transfer state of incorporation to Texas," Musk wrote hours after vote.

Musk moves businesses out of Delaware 

Musk has voiced his strong preference for moving bussinesses out of Delaware, a state which has traditionally been home to some of the country's biggest businesses because of tax and legal benefits there.

Neuralink, which is also another of Musk's companies, also changed its location of incorporation, from Delaware to Nevada last week.

But even before the ruling, Musk appeared to be exiting Delaware. After his purchase of social media company Twitter, now X, in 2022, Musk changed the company's state of incorporation from Delaware to Nevada. Despite the majority of its facilities being in California, Twitter was another example of a Delaware-registered US company.

rm/msh (Reuters, AP)