Elon Musk, pictured in 2020, said although San Francisco is "in a doom spiral," X — formerly Twitter — would keep its HQ in the city. Win McNamee—Getty Images
Elon Musk may have a complicated relationship with San Francisco—but he has no intention of moving X, the company formerly known as Twitter, out of the tech hub.
Musk revealed over the weekend that the company he acquired for $44 billion last year has been offered various “rich incentives” to relocate its headquarters.
But despite its recent name change—and Musk’s often less-than-favorable views on San Francisco—X will not be leaving its long-established home, the platform’s billionaire owner said in a tweet.
“The city is in a doom spiral with one company after another [having] left or leaving. Therefore, they expect X will move too,” Musk said. “We will not.”
Musk slams ‘derelict’ and ‘unsafe’ San Francisco
In recent years, San Francisco has faced a crisis of violent crime, drug abuse and homelessness that has drawn criticism from many prominent members of the city’s tech community.
A number of companies have vacated their stores in San Francisco’s shopping hub, a phenomenon dubbed a “retail exodus,” thanks in part to crime rates.
Earlier this year, Whole Foods abruptly closed its flagship store in San Francisco, citing employee safety, while Nordstrom, Anthropologie and Saks Off 5th have also fled the city’s Union Square.
Musk himself has long been a public critic of San Francisco.
Back in May, he labeled downtown San Francisco a “disaster” and likened it to “a derelict zombie apocalypse.”
A month later, Musk claimed that many Twitter employees “feel unsafe coming to work” in the city and had had their car windows smashed while they were parked outside the office.
“They also got such a null response from the police that they rarely even bother reporting crimes anymore, because nothing happens,” Musk claimed.
He has lashed out at San Francisco’s Democratic leadership in the past for allegedly failing to tackle crime, arguing in May that because the party has been in control in San Francisco for so long there is “no feedback loop for correction, because they never lose, no matter how bad it gets.”
Statistics from the San Francisco Police Department show that in the first six months of this year, the overall crime rate was down 3.4% from the same period in 2022.
However, certain crimes surged in frequency, with homicide up by 4%, vehicle thefts up by 9% and robbery up by 12% year-on-year.
Earlier this year, in the wake of the fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee in San Francisco, Musk tweeted that many people he knew had been “severely assaulted” in the city.
“Violent crime in SF is horrific and even if attackers are caught, they are often released immediately,” he alleged.
His comments received backlash from San Francisco’s district attorney Brooke Jenkins, who slammed Musk’s take on the case as “reckless and irresponsible.”
Under his stewardship, X has also butted heads with city officials and residents.
Earlier this year, Twitter was sued for allegedly failing to pay rent on its offices in London and San Francisco.
Meanwhile, the city is currently investigating the giant glowing “X” that was recently installed at Twitter HQ, with officials looking into whether the required permits were obtained to erect the sign on top of the building.
The company’s neighbors have reportedly been complaining about the powerful light emitted from the new sign, with some labeling it a “danger” and a “clown show.”
Despite his differences with San Francisco and its leadership, however, the Tesla CEO and world’s wealthiest person said Saturday night that X would remain loyal to the city.
“You only know who your real friends are when the chips are down,” Musk tweeted. “San Francisco, beautiful San Francisco, though others forsake you, we will always be your friend.”
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