SEOUL - Private rocket company SpaceX has switched where it is incorporated to Texas from Delaware, founder Elon Musk said, weeks after a Delaware judge voided his pay package at Tesla, another company he owns.

Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson issued a certificate on Feb 14 confirming that the US state has accepted the company’s filing to relocate its incorporation, according to a copy of the document that was posted on her office’s website.

Mr Musk, a billionaire who lives in Texas and also runs carmaker Tesla, has had issues with the state of Delaware. In January, a judge there voided the pay package that had helped to make him the world’s wealthiest person.

That case was brought by a group of Tesla shareholders who were challenging a stock options package that allowed Mr Musk to acquire about 304 million Tesla shares at a preset price – US$23.34 a share – if the company achieved certain goals.

The judge ultimately ruled that Mr Musk had effectively overseen his own compensation plan, valued at more than US$50 billion (S$67 billion) in January, with the help of compliant board members.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Mr Musk moved Tesla’s headquarters to Texas from California, although he said in 2023 that the carmaker would move one component of that operation – its engineering headquarters – back to California.

He has also said that he wants to reincorporate Tesla to Texas from Delaware.

But because Tesla, unlike SpaceX, is publicly traded, the move would require shareholder approval.

SpaceX still designs and builds its spacecraft at its headquarters in Hawthorne, California, a city near Los Angeles International Airport. NYTIMES