Elon Musk’s business empire continues to ramp up operations across Central Texas.
Aside from Tesla, Musk’s other companies include space and rocket pioneer SpaceX, tunneling startup The Boring Company and brain implant startup Neuralink Corp. Combined, the companies are hiring for more than 100 positions in a variety of fields and are building or leasing space across the metro.
In Bastrop County, shell companies tied to Musk own close to 450 acres along FM 1209, where SpaceX and The Boring Co. are operating, according to past Austin Business Journal reporting. The two have erected thousands of square feet of industrial space and are expected to eventually employ hundreds of people on land east of the Tesla factory — if they don’t already.
Map: ABJ earlier this year analyzed public records to find these Bastrop County parcels owned by shell companies connected to Elon Musk's businesses.
SpaceX plans to make accessories for Starlink, a satellite-based internet service. By press time, it had more than 90 Bastrop-based job postings on its website. The Boring Co. is testing machines that could tunnel transit systems underground. Its biggest claim to fame is its shuttle system beneath the Las Vegas Strip. Other tunneling proposals have failed to gain traction.
The tunneling startup has been in the Austin area since at least 2020, when it grabbed a lease at an industrial warehouse in Pflugerville. The company now appears to be headquartered in Bastrop, where it was advertising 35-plus jobs online by publication time, ranging from engineering work to operations and production.
Additionally, Neuralink will soon begin recruiting patients for its first-ever human trial. The startup, which is developing a brain-computer interface, announced Sept. 19 it received approval to begin recruiting patients for the trial. It will assess the initial functionality of its brain-computer interface for enabling people with paralysis to control external devices with their thoughts.
For years, Neuralink has been hiring in the area and is building a campus in Travis County. It’s not clear if the trial will be conducted here. The startup had roughly 20 Austin-based jobs posted on its website by publication time.
Of course, Musk’s business empire is anchored by Tesla, which is also expanding its footprint across the metro and now employs more than 20,000 at its electric vehicle factory east of Austin. Tesla will lease warehouse space in Kyle, about 35 miles south of the gigafactory, for warehouse storage and light assembly. It has nabbed a little less than 1 million square feet and could take more.
Musk also has a philanthropic organization based in Austin, though little is known about what the Musk Foundation has been up to. However, Bloomberg reported last month that the foundation made a $10 million donation to the University of Texas at Austin in 2021 to support research programs, according to the foundation’s tax filings.
It was one of the foundation’s biggest donations ever, according to Bloomberg.
Justin Sayers contributed reporting.
