Musk wants the trial to be moved out of San Francisco because he thinks the jury will be prejudiced against him.
According to a filing by his attorneys late Friday, the billionaire wanted the trial to be held in western Texas, where his company moved its headquarters a year ago.
A large portion of the San Francisco-area jury pool is likely to hold a personal and material bias against Mr. Musk as a result of the layoffs at one of his companies. Negative and inflammatory local publicity surrounding the events has compounded the baseline bias.
In a lawsuit, investors argue that Musk made false statements about taking the electric-car maker private in order to cause the company's stock price to plunge. Musk said that Saudi Arabia's wealth fund would support his attempt to take the company private. January 17 is when the trial is going to start.
The motion is not being brought because of Mr. Musk's negative news coverage. According to the filing, Mr. Musk knows that being the subject of negative and even unfair media attention comes with the territory. The local media and political establishment have attempted to portray Mr. Musk as personally responsible for causing material economic harm to the significant number of potential jurors impacted by the layoffs.
Musk has sparred with San Francisco after turning some space at the company's Market Street headquarters into makeshift bedrooms. The Mayor of London Breed has been criticized by Musk.
He installed himself as chief executive officer after buying the company. The company relocated its corporate headquarters to Austin in December of 2021. There are 47,000 employees in the state according to the company.
Attorneys for Musk believe western Texas would be a better venue than California.
They wrote that Mr. Musk is likely to get a fair trial in Texas. In the Western District of Texas, Mr. Musk has not been the subject of a lot of press coverage. News outlets in Texas don't publish many stories about Mr. Musk.
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