BASTROP, TEXAS — Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) plans to invest $280 million for the expansion of its semiconductor research-and-development (R&D) and advanced packaging facility in Bastrop, about 33 miles southeast of Austin. The company received its fifth Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund grant, totaling $17.3 million, from the State of Texas to help fund the expansion.
Over the next three years, SpaceX plans to expand the square footage of its Bastrop facility by 1 million square feet to produce Starlink kits and their adjacent parts, as well as advanced silicon products. The facility expansion will focus on developing printed circuit boards (PCBs), a semiconductor failure analysis lab and advanced packaging for panel level packaging (PLP). Starlink is an international satellite internet provider owned and operated by SpaceX.
Upon completion of the project, the Bastrop facility will be the largest PCB and PLP facility in North America.
“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,” says Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX.
Texas’ Semiconductor Innovation Fund was assembled in 2023 through the Texas CHIPS Act, which developed a new division within the governor’s office that identifies as a performance-based incentive program to encourage continued leadership of Texas in semiconductor research, design and manufacturing, as well as the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Consortium.
Founded in 2002 to revolutionize space technology, SpaceX is an American space technology company headquartered at the Starbase development site near Brownsville, Texas. Founded by Tesla and X (formerly Twitter) Elon Musk, the company designs, manufactures and launches rockets and spacecraft with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets.
As of this writing, there are more than 6,750 Starlink satellites in orbit. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted SpaceX permission to launch a total 12,000 Starlink satellites by 2026.
— Abby Cox