TEXAS — A $17.3 million grant to expand SpaceX’s Bastrop semiconductor facility was announced by Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday.

The Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund is the source of the grant.

“Texas connects the nation and the world with the most advanced technologies manufactured right here in our great state,” said Abbott. “I congratulate SpaceX on their more than $280 million investment in this Texas-sized expansion of their semiconductor R&D (research and development) and advanced packaging facility in Bastrop, which will be the largest of its kind in North America.”

Bastrop’s facility expansion is estimated to generate over 400 jobs and over $280 million in capital investment.

To produce Starlink kits and components, including advanced packaged silicon, SpaceX’s Bastrop facility will expand by 1 million square feet over three years.

“SpaceX is investing hundreds of millions of dollars into our Bastrop facility,” said SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell. “This grant will help continue to expand Bastrop’s manufacturing for Starlink to help connect even more people across the state and around the world with high-speed, low-latency internet.”

Upon completion, the Bastrop plant will be North America’s biggest printed circuit board and panel-level packaging factory.

SpaceX is a space technology company headquartered at the Starbase site near Brownsville, Texas. In 2002, Elon Musk created SpaceX with the goal of lowering space launch costs. According to Wikipedia, by October 2024, the company’s Falcon 9 rockets have landed and taken off again over 330 times, with one to two launches weekly.