I understand what you are saying, but it really does not conflict with what I am saying. Our employees in that other state are not working on physical things in that state. They ssh to servers in the U.S. and E.U. and do Zoom calls with people in other states and countries.
In my mind, this is exactly what Elon would be doing from Texas. Zoom calls with people in other states and countries. So how are the two things different and why would he be paying CA taxes on his personal income?
The two things aren't different if Musk actually doesn't set foot in California, just like the employees of your company.
I'd imagine the commenter that said he'd still have to pay income tax in California assumed that Musk would still need to be in California, to manage his companies there, and would have to pay California tax on a corresponding proportion of his income.
Even set foot might be ok. Our employees sometimes visit CA for a day or two. That said, we have had employees that were in NY for a month and NY did require them to file. This actually prompted an interesting internal conversation on slack and I learned a lot today.
In my mind, this is exactly what Elon would be doing from Texas. Zoom calls with people in other states and countries. So how are the two things different and why would he be paying CA taxes on his personal income?