Musk's Relocation: A Microcosm of the New Era "Cold War"?

The situation has now changed.

Here's the English translation:

AI Regulation Bill

This AI regulation bill, officially named "The Frontier Artificial Intelligence Model Safety Innovation Act" (SB 1047), has already passed the relevant committee in California and is about to be sent for formal voting in both chambers.

Once it passes the vote and is signed by California Governor Newsom, it will become ### official law.

As soon as the news broke, Silicon Valley tech companies expressed their disapproval, saying this is nonsense.

The bill targets companies that have invested over $100 million in ### large language models - Google, Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic are all on the regulatory list.

As the hub of technological innovation, California is actually restraining itself and putting the brakes on the rapidly advancing AI?

California's side has its reasons, saying ### AI violates citizens' privacy.

This isn't the first time California has "offended" tech companies.

In recent years, HP, Oracle, Tesla, AI decision-making company Palantir, and telecom supplier DZS have all left California and ### relocated to Texas.

On July 17, Musk tweeted again announcing that he would move the headquarters of X and SpaceX to Texas.

Even Ad Astra, the private school founded by Musk to provide STEAM education for SpaceX employees' families, has settled in Texas.

Note: STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics.

Texas, America's biggest rebel, known for its independence movement and redneck culture, is quite different from the diverse and inclusive culture of internet companies.

Take LGBT for example. In Silicon Valley, rainbow flags fly high, Google covers health insurance for employees' same-sex partners, Facebook offers ### over 50 gender options at signup, and Apple's CEO Tim Cook has long been openly gay.

But in Texas, LGBT stands for Liberty, Guns, Beer, and Trump.

In California, the more gender (orientations), the more free-spirited you are considered.

But in Texas, if a biological male enters a women's restroom claiming LGBT identity, he's likely to get beaten up.

How did such a place with traditional values become Musk's promised land?

California's Fall, Texas' Rise

In 1998, in a cafe on University Avenue in Palo Alto, California, a group of people were enthusiastically discussing something.

Their wild ideas soon focused on one concept - they planned to create an online payment tool, which later became PayPal.

Just like in 2015 when "mass entrepreneurship and innovation" was at its peak and Starbucks was filled with internet entrepreneurs, similar scenes were playing out every day in Palo Alto.

Backed by Stanford University's educational resources, Palo Alto has produced well-known tech companies like HP, Facebook, Apple, Google, Logitech, Skype, and created a large number of nouveau riche in the Bay Area.

With such talented people and favorable conditions, the cost of living is naturally ### "accessible by billions".

First is the ### housing price. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's statistics in July 2020, the median home price in the U.S. was ### $340,000, while in California it was $890,000, and in Silicon Valley, it reached $1.34 million.

In comparison, as of January this year, the median home price in Palo Alto was ### $3.35 million.

Taxes are equally staggering. California is known as the "### capital of all taxes", with the highest state personal income tax and capital gains tax rates in the U.S., with a maximum rate of ### 14.4%. From a tax perspective, its business environment ranks second to last among the 50 states.

Of course, this tax rate applies to those with annual incomes over $1 million.

The world's richest man, Musk, once stated that in 2021, he paid at least ### $11 billion (about 70.1 billion RMB) in taxes, which, if completed, would set ### the highest record for personal tax payment in U.S. history.

We all rack our brains for a $5 takeout coupon, so naturally, the wealthy are reluctant to hand over their money.

Besides stock incentives and charitable donations as white gloves, there's another way - moving to a place with lower tax rates.

In comparison, ### Texas has no personal income tax, and the maximum corporate income tax is only ### 2.7%, the 5th lowest in the U.S.

With the global economic downturn in recent years, even the wealthy have to tighten their belts. Considering factors like taxes, land, and labor, moving from California to Texas can save ### 30% in operating costs.

The Texas governor is actively promoting, ### the Lone Star State welcomes you.

People are voting with their feet. From 2010 to 2018, 13,200 companies left California, with many heading to Texas.

The headquarters of Dell, HP, Oracle, and Tesla have arrived, while Apple, NVIDIA, Intel, and AMD have also flocked to establish branches. California has Silicon Valley, and Austin, Texas has become ### Silicon Hills.

As soon as Musk announced the big move of X and SpaceX, California Governor Newsom became anxious. He specifically dug up a two-year-old tweet where Trump insulted Musk, sarcastically commenting, "You're kneeling (to Trump)."

What does Musk's move have to do with Trump?

For a company, relocating is about reducing costs and increasing efficiency, but economic considerations are clearly not the only factor for Silicon Valley elites.

In 1998, the group that walked out of that Palo Alto cafe later became known as the "PayPal Mafia". Among them, Peter Thiel became a famous venture capital guru in Silicon Valley, while Musk became the leader of Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink.

They once achieved the American dream in Silicon Valley, but now, they have all left California.

Peter