Elon Musk flies from San Jose to Hawthorne the week of the xAI lawsuit dismissal

Elon Musk flew from San Jose to Hawthorne on June 18, a 56-minute Gulfstream G550 hop that landed at Jack Northrop Field just before 3 a.m. local time. The flight, on tail N272BG, originated from KSJC, near his xAI headquarters in the Bay Area, and arrived at the airport adjacent to SpaceX’s California facilities.

The trip lands the same week a U.S. district judge dismissed xAI’s trade secret lawsuit against OpenAI with prejudice, per a Reuters report on June 16. It was Musk’s second legal defeat to OpenAI in as many months; a federal jury in Oakland had already rejected his $150 billion suit against Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, ruling the claims fell outside the statute of limitations. Musk called the ruling a “calendar technicality” on X and vowed to appeal.

Hawthorne is a well-worn destination in Musk’s travel log — a corridor he flies repeatedly for Starship work and SpaceX board matters. The G550’s arrival in the small hours suggests a late-breaking meeting or a pivot from the courtroom to the engineering floor, not unlike the pattern seen before major test launches or executive reshuffles.