The company explained its move as a bid to "streamline operations," according to the Times although it didn't elaborate on what that meant.

SpaceX is no stranger to Texas. It set up a rocket test facility for the Falcon 9 in McGregor, and it's in the midst of constructing a southern Texas launch site in Brownsville that will be used for both Starship testing and commercial flights. It might just be a question of concentrating work in the area that Starship will effectively call home, at least for the foreseeable future.

Update 1/16/19 7:55PM ET: Elon Musk says the LA Times' "source info is incorrect." SpaceX is building Starship prototypes in Texas, but the development of both the spacecraft and its accompanying Raptor engines remains in Hawthorne, California. We've updated the article accordingly.