Mapping Elon Musk's business empire: A guide to Musklandia in the Austin area
From Teslas to tunnel sites, it might seem like Elon Musk’s companies are in every corner of Central Texas these days.
There's a very good reason for that: There is, in fact, Elon Musk-related activity almost everywhere you look in the Austin area.
Musk – one of the world's richest people, CEO of electric automaker Tesla and aerospace company SpaceX and now majority owner of Twitter – said in 2020 that he had moved to Texas, although he says his main residence is in South Texas, not Austin.
But there's no doubt Musk has made Austin one of the key centers for his vast business empire.
Some of the moves have been well publicized. For instance, Musk moved the corporate headquarters for Tesla to Austin, on the site of the company's new $1.1 billion manufacturing facility.
Welcome to Musklandia:Austin adjusts to life with Tesla and its eccentric billionaire boss Elon Musk
But a number of his other affiliated companies have also quietly moved their headquarters to the Austin area, or at least opened operational centers here.
Much of that has been done with little fanfare, and sometimes with no formal announcement at all, which can make it hard to keep track of for even the most informed Musk follower.
So, the American-Statesman decided to compile a detailed list of all of Musk's varied companies and business interests that have shown up in the Austin metro area. Or at least, as close as we can come to mapping all of them; as we said, it can be tough to keep up with all of Musk's moves.
But here's what we know right now:
More:Elon Musk says Austin's not his home, but he spends a lot of time here, flight records show
Tesla leads Austin-area presence
Musk's best-known company is electric automaker Tesla. It has its headquarters in Southeast Travis County at the site of the Tesla gigafactory.
Austin-area operations: The carmaker moved its corporate headquarters to Austin last year to the site of its $1.1 billion manufacturing facility, Giga Texas, which held a grand opening in April. Musk first announced Travis County would be home to the factory in July 2020, and the facility started producing cars in late 2021. Tesla held a grand opening and delivered the first Austin-made Model Y vehicles in April 2022, and the factory is expected to play a key role in the company's future. The facility is also expected to produce the Cybertruck and Model 3 as well as vehicle batteries, and to employ more than 10,000 workers.
The Giga Texas site consists of more than 2,500 acres along the Colorado River. The facility itself is now over 10 million square feet of factory and manufacturing space and includes both vehicle and battery manufacturing. The road on which the company headquarters and manufacturing facility are located has also been renamed from Harold Green Road to Tesla Road.
Musk has also detailed vague plans for an "ecological paradise" on the site. In September, Musk said on Twitter that once the factory is financially on its feet the company will build out the "ecological paradise" on the south portion of the property. Long-term, Musk said he also wants to have "little electric Tesla boats with a retro-futuristic Victorian design" and a boardwalk with amenities that goes all the way to downtown Austin so you can walk, bike or kayak." Currently, the Tesla property does not connect to downtown Austin, so it's unclear how such a project would be possible.
Inside Elon's big, weird Austin party:Music, robots – and even a petting zoo
The Boring Company booms in Austin area
Musk's tunneling and infrastructure company quietly has moved its corporate headquarters from California to Pflugerville, and it has been rapidly growing is operations in Central Texas.
What the company does: The Boring Company is involved with a number of product lines based around tunneling and underground infrastructure. It is working on loop services designed to transport passengers between stations using autonomous vehicles at up to 150 miles per hour. Nationally, the Boring Company has one operational tunnel, a 0.8-mile project underneath the Las Vegas Convention Center, and Las Vegas officials have also approved a 29-mile tunnel system containing 51 stations under the city. The company also previously had a 1.1-mile test tunnel in Hawthorne, Calif., that it recently dismantled, according to Bloomberg news service.
Central Texas operations:
- Pflugerville: The tunneling company has a 40,000-square-foot commercial office space on Impact Way. It now shares the same address as its headquarters. Filings for the facility, along with tweets from the company in 2020, were some of the earliest hints of the company's expansion to Central Texas.
- Bastrop: The Boring Company is working on an 80,000-square-foot manufacturing and warehouse facility on a Bastrop County property, where it plans to test its tunneling equipment and dig "as many tunnels as needed for research and development purposes," according to filings with the state. Gapped Bass LLC, an entity associated with the company, has also been buying up dozens of acres of neighboring properties. Neighbors have pushed back against the activities and even alleged this year that the Boring Company was using its Bastrop site for living quarters without proper permits. The county sent the company notices of permit violations related to the septic system. Neighbors and environmental groups are also seeking a hearing related to the company's wastewater disposal plans for the site.
- Proposed Austin-area projects:
- The Boring Company has reached out to a number of Central Texas cities and entities about potential tunneling projects and has floated the idea of a larger subterranean tunnel connecting Austin and San Antonio.
- Kyle Crossing project: Kyle, an Austin suburb in Hays County, confirmed in November that it has scrapped a proposal for a Boring Company pedestrian tunnel that would have connected Kyle Crossing, a mostly retail development at FM 1626 and Interstate 35, with Plum Creek, a residential, retail and commercial development. The Kyle tunnel would have allowed pedestrian traffic, along with bikes, scooters and small electric vehicles such as golf carts. The plan was halted in August after Union Pacific Railroad, which has railway tracks running through the area where the tunnel was proposed, rejected the idea of building a tunnel under its rail tracks. The city paid the Boring Company $50,000 for a development service agreement and a feasibility study, using funding from the Kyle Crossing developer. The project never advanced to the point of needing to produce a feasibility study, city officials say.
- Austin Convention Center project: A November 2021 filing shows the Boring Company is exploring the idea of building a "new development with associated improvements" near or at the Austin Convention Center. The filing gives few details but calls the project the "Austin Loop Transportation System," which might suggest the project could include a tunnel similar to Boring Company projects in Las Vegas.
- Del Valle warehouse: The Boring Company is also planning to build a 220,000-square-foot warehouse not far from Tesla's manufacturing site in Travis County. The warehouse would be on Falwell Lane near the Colorado River and Texas 130, about 10 minutes from Tesla's headquarters, and about 15 minutes from the Austin offices of Neuralink. The filing gives few details about what the company has planned other than the size of the warehouse and calls the project a “horse ranch warehouse," and is under the name of a different entity, Horse Ranch LLC.
- Tesla tunnel: A June 2022 filing showed the Boring Company might also be considering building a tunnel near the Tesla manufacturing facility in Travis County. The project called the "Colorado River Connector Tunnel," calls for a two-mile private access tunnel.
SpaceX adding to Austin-area presence
SpaceX, Musk's California-based aerospace company, has had a significant Texas presence for several years, with facilities in South Texas and the Waco area. The company, which makes and launches rockets and satellite communications technology, among other things, has also found its way to the Austin area.
Bastrop County operations: While Musk and SpaceX have made no formal announcements, filings with the state and job postings over the past two years have indicated the company now has operations in Central Texas. In August, a filing, with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation shows SpaceX likely has plans to construct a facility in Bastrop County off FM 1209, not far from the Colorado River. The company is not listed but it does note a SpaceX employee and the company's McGregor address, under the name of “Project Echo." It calls for a 521,521-square-foot shell building that will start construction on the site in October, with plans to complete it in July 2023 for an estimated cost of $43 million.
A separate filing with the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality lists the company by the name Space Exploration Technologies Corp, the same project name as well as the McGregor address. That filing also gives few details, but it estimated construction on a project would start in June and finish in March 2023.
Neuralink in the Austin area, as well
Neuralink, Musk's California-based neurotechnology company, is working to develop a computer-brain interface, which is intended to let people control a computer or mobile device using their minds. Musk has described the technology as a Fitbit in your skull with wires that go into your brain. The secretive company has yet to bring a product to the market and rarely shares public updates.
Austin-area operations: Documents show the Neuralink plans to build on a site in the Del Valle area of Travis County. The plans call for eight buildings on the site, with office space and multiple laboratories. Those include a 78,000 square-foot building with two office spaces and warehouse space, and a 5,850 square-foot office described as an animal vet office. During a December event, an employee said Neuralink's device manufacturing moved to Austin and the office has a double operating room and plans to build out a clinic. The company had previously posted job listings and on social media suggesting the existence of an Austin office. In Central Texas, Neuralink's site plans are listed under the name of a subsidiary or related entity, River Bottoms Ranch LLC.
The Elon Musk Foundation
Musk's private foundation was founded in 2001 and is focused on renewable energy, advocacy, space exploration, pediatric research, science and engineering education, and research and development around artificial intelligence. The foundation has been awarded a number of grants and keeps a bare-bones website.
In the summer of 2020, the California-based foundation created an entity in Austin. The two entities then merged, and the resulting entity is now based in Central Texas.
Other Musk-affiliated ventures
Excession LLC: This is Musk's wealth management entity and manages his assets. The firm moved to Austin in July 2020, although it still maintains a California office. Excession is run by Jared Birchall, who is also CEO of Neuralink, a director at the Boring Company, and a board member for the Elon Musk Foundation.
Ad Astra/ Astra Nova School: A self-described "experimental school" originally founded for the children of SpaceX employees. The school is now available to anyone ages 10-14 globally. The school started under the name Ad Astra at SpaceX in California but changed its name to Astra Nova and became an online school. It is still listed as Ad Astra on California and Texas filings. The school is now all online, and offers full-time and part-time enrollment, with class sizes of 6-16 students, and serves 185 students across its programs according to its website. The school opened in Texas in July 2021 and lists an Austin post office box as its address. Its Texas directors are listed as Jared Birchall and Elon Musk.
Twitter coming to Austin?
With Musk taking a controlling interest in social media platform Twitter, would he move some of the company's operations to the Austin area? It would make sense, industry analysts say. And Musk himself said in a recent meeting with Twitter employees that he would consider the idea of a dual California/Texas headquarters.
Even before the Twitter deal closed, Musk was encouraged to move the company to Texas, including in April when Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted “bring Twitter to Texas to join Tesla, SpaceX, and the Boring Company.” A Central Texas rancher, Jim Schwertner, president and CEO of Schwertner Farms even tweeted an offer of 100 acres free of charge if Musk would move Twitter's corporate offices to the site in Schwertner, an unincorporated community east of Jarrell.