Elon Musk Triples Down on Land in Bastrop

Elon Musk’s dizzying array of tech companies have tripled the size of their real estate holdings in Bastrop County since May.

FM 969, a rural roadway that includes the 30 miles between Bastrop and Austin, has quickly become the hub of Musk’s activities in the Austin area, according to a review of their holdings by the Austin Business Journal. Over the past few months, the data reviewed by the outlet showed that entities tied to Musk have amassed about 2,000 acres in Bastrop, compared to the 700 acres he was tied to earlier in the year.

In June, Musk publicly insinuated that he had about 1,000 acres either owned or under contract. Musk affiliates have snagged upwards of 1,360 acres in the past three or so months, according to the outlet.

What Musk plans to do with the land is unclear. His new Gigasat solar factory, which is set to span 11 million square feet, is on land previously owned by SpaceX. SpaceX has not submitted any permits for the new parcels, according to the outlet.

Since Musk personally moved to Austin in 2020, the companies tied to his burgeoning empire have trickled in behind him. The first was Tesla, which constructed the $10 billion Gigafactory at 13101 Tesla Road in 2021, just a stone’s throw from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. X, formerly known as Twitter, moved to Austin and SpaceX moved to Starbase, Texas.

xAI, the artificial intelligence firm tied to X, subleased around 112,000 square feet of office space at the Seaholm Power Plant along the Colorado River in Downtown Austin. The SpaceX Gigasat solar production facility is aimed at shooting data centers into space, with the goal of operating 6,500 satellites by the end of 2027. The Terafab, a $20-billion-plus semiconductor fabrication plant, is expected to begin production in Grimes County in 2027.

What Musk will do, exactly, with the new land in Bastrop is currently unknown.

— Hunter Cooke