Elon Musk had already announced that he was looking to move the company out of San Francisco, so this probably comes as no surprise. But still, the official announcement that X will be leaving the former Twitter building marks the end of an era, and really, the physical end of the platform that once was the bird app.
As reported by The Verge, X CEO Linda Yaccarino sent out an all-staff announcement today, explaining that the company is set to vacate its iconic Market Square location.
As per The Verge:
“In the email to employees, X CEO Linda Yaccarino says the company will “transition to our new primary locations in the Bay Area,” including an office in San Jose and a “shared space” with Musk’s xAI in Palo Alto.”
Which, again, makes sense.
Last month, Elon vowed to move X out of San Francisco in protest against California Governor Gavin Newsom signing new legislation that will stop school districts from notifying parents if their child starts using different pronouns, or identifies as a different gender than what’s on their school record.
Musk has his own experience with his child transitioning, and it’s his belief that the current “woke” education system indoctrinated and effectively brainwashed his daughter into adopting a new life. Musk has since stated that “the woke mind virus” essentially killed his son, leading to him having no contact with his now daughter. His daughter, meanwhile, has refuted his claims.
But essentially, Musk has strong opinions on this subject, and this specific law change, combined with problems related to homeless drug addicts, which Musk has repeatedly highlighted since buying the company, has led to Elon pushing to move the company out of the state, ideally to Texas instead.
Which isn’t seemingly what’s happening at this stage, though X is also staffing for a new safety center in Texas, which will be focused on addressing CSAM concerns.
In addition, or in variance to these reasons, Musk has also highlighted regulatory challenges relating to operating a payment platform in SF.
No choice. It is impossible to operate in San Francisco if you’re processing payments.
That’s why Stripe, Block (CashApp) & others had to move.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 5, 2024
Whatever the specifics may be, in future, X’s now much smaller staff contingent will seemingly be split across three offices, along with contractors in other regions.
The change raises various questions about X’s future operating model, and in particular, the integration of X and xAI, Elon Musk’s own AI initiative, built, essentially, in response to OpenAI, of which Musk had been a founder. Musk has been working to frame AI as a key focus for his family of businesses, powering elements of Tesla, while also developing Grok, its AI chatbot, as well as new technologies for its coming humanoid robots.
But questions have been raised as to how X is intermingling resources from the different entities, and essentially funding developments for each by shifting money and hardware between them. That could mean that Tesla investors, for example, end up inadvertently funding Musk’s vanity projects.
The decision to integrate X staff into the xAI office will add to these concerns, while also prompting further scrutiny as to how Musk may be using funds for the xAI project to prop-up his X initiative. Because X, by all accounts, is losing money, but Musk recently secured $6 billion in funding for xAI, which could be funneled into X, as a key data source for training.
The co-mingling of these companies will prompt more questions on this front, and it’ll be interesting to see if and how Musk looks to maintain separation, while also bringing his projects closer together.
But the broader impact, of course, is the shift away from Twitter’s traditional home, and ending the company’s time in Market Street.
I mean, really, Musk has already sold off most of the Twitter branded signage and art, and even defaced the large Twitter sign on the front of the building. So for all intents and purposes, the soul of what Twitter was has already left the building.
But the actual shift away from the office by the remaining staff still feels like a significant point of note for the platform.
X staff will be shifting out of the office over the coming months.
