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The Tesla Gigafactory in Southeast Travis County is expected to begin production this year. (Tesla Owners Austin/Twitter)
Multi-hyphenated billionaire Elon Musk recently revealed that he lives in a $50,000 prefab tiny home in Boca Chica, Texas, that he rents from his aerospace company SpaceX. Although he says that is his primary home, many of his business ventures are quickly growing in Austin.
Here's an update on five of his startups, from Tesla to his Austin-based philanthropic foundation.
Tesla
Happy #4thofJuly weekend, enjoy 3 drone shots from Tesla GigaTexas, taken just now!
— Tesla Owners Austin (@AustinTeslaClub) July 3, 2021
Factory for the most American made car.
Thanks @Tesla & @elonmusk for choosing #Texas as your home! TSLA
📷 @peterdog15 #IndependenceDay pic.twitter.com/IOJN6BvDY2
The $1.1 billion Tesla Gigafactory in Southeast Travis County is growing each day as crews work to make good on Musk's promises: initial limited production by the end of the year and as many as 10,000 jobs. The construction site has attracted acolytes such as the Tesla Owners Austin and local elected officials as well as speculation.
🚘 Toured the Tesla site w/ some of my team on Friday! It's incredible to see how quickly it's coming together. I look forward to checking it out once it's complete. #GigaTexas pic.twitter.com/y1dEqwJFvu
— Vanessa Fuentes 💃🏽 (@VanessaForATX) June 30, 2021
The factory will produce the Model 3 sedan, Model Y SUV and Cybertruck, at least one of which has made its Central Texas debut. Tesla sold 201,250 cars in the second quarter, more than twice as many as it did in the same period last year, despite a global chip shortage, according to a July 2 press release.
Cybertruck at Giga Texas pic.twitter.com/c1RuektPnN
— Tesla (@Tesla) April 16, 2021
In addition to construction, the electric carmaker is in the midst of a local hiring spree, with more than 250 Austin-based jobs posted on its website.
Although the factory is still under construction, questions are already swirling about future projects. The entity Tesla used to buy the site owns more than 2,500 acres along SH 130, according to a May 13 report by the Austin Business Journal. Experts suggested it could be used for Musk's other ventures or serve as the future home of Tesla HQ, following its founder from California to Texas.
SpaceX
Musk's aerospace company SpaceX is not currently hiring in the Austin area but does have scores of open positions in Brownsville and McGregor, where it has a launch facility and rocket development facility, respectively.
However, SpaceX will break ground on a new "state-of-the-art manufacturing facility" in Austin related to its broadband Starlink project, according to job listings posted in March.
Starlink is a forthcoming high-speed, low-latency broadband internet system enabled by a "constellation of low Earth satellites" and suited for populations with little or no connectivity, such as rural areas, according to its website.
It is unclear where the Austin facility will be located but it will manufacture consumer products such as Starlink dishes, Wi-Fi routers and mounting hardware, according to the postings, which are no longer listed.
The Boring Company
Tunnel Rave pic.twitter.com/d3JKOIAsy7
— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) December 4, 2020
Musk's tunneling startup—and flamethrower manufacturer—is hiring for 18 Austin-based positions, according to its website. One job posting mentions a research and development site in Bastrop, marking the company's first admission that it has a location in the Austin area, as reported by the Austin Business Journal last month.
The Boring Company built a 1.14-mile research and development tunnel in Hawthorne, California, in 2018. It cost around $10 million to construct and originated at a SpaceX property, according to the website.
Neuralink
Musk's brain implant startup is also hiring in Austin. Its website lists seven positions, including a neurosurgical robot operator and veterinarian. The company has tested its product on monkeys and pigs, prompting pushback from PETA, and Musk tweeted in February that initial human trials could begin as soon as later this year.
Neuralink is working super hard to ensure implant safety & is in close communication with the FDA. If things go well, we might be able to do initial human trials later this year.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 1, 2021
Although the company is headquartered in San Francisco, the postings have fueled speculation that it will expand to a new Austin location for months.
Musk Foundation
The Musk Foundation website is extremely bare. (Musk Foundation)
Musk's philanthropic venture relocated to Austin last summer, ahead of its founder's closely watched move from California to Texas. Founded in 2001, the foundation supports renewable energy, human space exploration, pediatric research, science and engineering education, and the development of artificial intelligence.
The Musk Foundation recently donated $1 million toward the revitalization of downtown Brownsville and new housing opportunities in the area, where SpaceX has a launch facility and is actively hiring.
Please consider moving to Starbase or greater Brownsville/South Padre area in Texas & encourage friends to do so!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 30, 2021
SpaceX’s hiring needs for engineers, technicians, builders & essential support personnel of all kinds are growing rapidly.
"There's going to be a need for professionals to be able to have a home near downtown," Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation Executive Director Josh Mejia told Valley Central last month. "We understand that there have been folks who've lived here for many generations, so we'd also like to support that as well."
Musk announced in March that he would donate $20 million to school districts in Cameron County, where he is attempting to incorporate the new city of Starbase, and $10 million to the city of Brownsville. The donations have prompted some to wonder: Could Austin be next?
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Popular
(Pexels)
House Bill 1325, which was signed in June 2019 by Gov. Greg Abbott, and the Farm Bill, signed into law by former President Donald Trump in 2018, legalized any hemp product containing less than .3% THC. The same bills were thought to have made Delta 8 legal, though the Texas Department of State Health Services added a notice on its website saying it was still a controlled substance as of Friday, Oct. 15.
Both the federal and state governments keep separate lists on what is considered a controlled substance. Marijuana is considered Schedule I, a category reserved for substances with "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse," both statewide and federally.
Austin-based CBD retailer Grassroots Harvest CEO Kemal Whyte, like many CBD shop retailers, was blindsided by the announcement. Many small businesses rely on Delta 8 for their sales—Green Herbal Care CBD said about 90% of its sales come from Delta 8—and Whyte said he is frustrated by the inconsistencies in the drug scheduling system.
(Grassroots Harvest/Instagram)
Since 87% of Texans support the legalization of marijuana, at least for medical use, per a recent poll, Whyte said he wonders who this legislation is for.
"It's gonna have a massive impact on small businesses—there's just no way around it," Whyte said. "The reality is, we don't want to push out anything bad for our customers, we want this to benefit our customers and to help them. If we can make money while doing it, that's the American dream. What are we doing, whose benefit is this for?"
Delta 8 surged in popularity after the perceived legalization—consumers enjoyed its lower psychotropic potency, decreased anxiety while using it and the peace of mind as a legal way to get high. So in order to protect their products and livelihoods, both Grassroots Harvest and Austin-based manufacturer Hometown Heroes are taking legal action.
Whyte said Grassroots Harvest is suing DSHS, saying their action is creating negative effects in the market. Meanwhile, a Hometown Heroes spokesperson said the company is in the process of filing a temporary restraining order that would pause the ban on Delta-8 in the state of Texas.
Threats against Delta 8 are not new—DSHS lost a lawsuit trying to make "smokable hemp products" illegal last year and Texas lawmakers had been considering a bill that would make Delta 8 illegal, though it was dropped after the clarification was made.
Hometown Heroes released a formal statement in response to the DSHS rule.
"I need to be clear—we love Texas, we're just choosing to fight for the will of the people in regards to cannabis in Texas," Hometown Hero CEO Lukas Gilkey said in a statement. "(Texas DSHS) are using backhanded ways to create legislation and go against the will of the people."
Whyte laments the fact that it would be easier legally to "open up a strip club that also sells guns," and said he can't post customer testimonials that mention the benefits of Delta 8 without getting hit with a cease and desist from the Food and Drug Administration. Whyte said he isn't opposed to regulation—far from it—he just wants to see it go through the correct channels.
"The fact that they're stunting our ability to communicate with our clients that want to learn about this, you're preventing us from communicating with them and teaching them, or spreading information that we know," Whyte said. "I think that that in and of itself opens up a lot of questions."
Grassroots Harvest still has Delta 8 products on its shelves for the time being but for how long, Whyte doesn't know.
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