Community members gathered outside the SpaceXAI Headquarters on Page Mill Road in Palo Alto on Monday evening. Demonstrators held up signs condemning Elon Musk’s involvement in the upcoming election and expressing anger with his other actions and those of his companies.
Protesters condemned Musk’s connections with Jeffrey Epstein, Grok AI creating nonconsensual sexualized images, DOGE removing USAID, and Musk’s donations to Trump’s campaign.
They also wanted to raise awareness of SpaceXAI’s relocation to Palo Alto, criticizing the building’s lack of signage. “I don’t think anybody realized this was XAI because they don’t have signage,” protester Laura Wallace said. “So we brought attention, and people who go by now recognize us and honk and expect us here.”
While the protest was not explicitly in support of it, many attendees supported California’s billionaire tax.
“Musk and Trump are the symptom. We’ve got to treat the disease. We give too much power to billionaires,” an anonymous organizer said. “Prop 40 is basically claiming what is ours. That was our money for healthcare institutions. It’s also giving money back to food assistance, which is our taxpayer money,”
Other protestors, however, said their goal was not to endorse one specific proposition, but to address urgent ongoing issues.
“We don’t say ‘endorse Proposition 40’. We say ‘tax the billionaires,’” Luis Robinson said. Robinson is a member of the Raging Grannies, an international network of activist groups that fights for social justice.
Demonstrators believe that they have had an impact on SpaceXAI employees and the surrounding community. “They put those hedges up just for us, and they just put them up on the days we’re here,” protester Julianne Hanson said. “So we are having some kind of effect on them, and they put cameras up and record us too.”
These same protests have happened every Monday for four months. “It’s not a huge crowd, but the crowd that comes out is just passionate and educated and committed and lovely people. They actually care, and that’s the best part to me. That’s what keeps me coming,” Herscher said. “We cannot have people staying at home; they have to be out on the street.”
Herscher also discussed his disappointment at the lack of youth participation. “It seems like young people should be leading this charge, and that doesn’t seem to be what’s happening,” he said.
The same anonymous organizer echoed the same concerns. “I would love to see more younger people show up. Because when youth turn out, then we win,” he said.
The next “SpaceXAI Has Gotta Go” protest is scheduled for Monday, November 2 at 5:00pm.
