Tesla slated to become the largest private-sector employer in Austin

Tesla CEO Elon Musk indicated plans to create a number of jobs at Giga Texas that would make the electric vehicle company one of the largest private-sector employers in or near Austin.

In a tweet Thursday, Musk said the southeast Travis County factory, which now serves as the company's headquarters, will be an investment of more than $10 billion over time and result in 20,000 direct jobs and 100,000 indirect jobs.

Musk made the comment in response to a tweet about the $60 million in property tax rebates local officials granted Tesla for the factory. Originally, the plant was announced in summer 2020 as a $1.1 billion investment that would create about 5,000 jobs. Later on, Musk said at least 10,000 workers would be needed by the end of 2022.

It’s uncertain if the plans he tweeted will ultimately happen. If they do, Tesla would be in step with H-E-B, according to the Austin Business Journal, which said the grocer ranked in the top spot as of July with 19,008 employees.

In an interview earlier this month with the Wall Street Journal, Musk confirmed Giga Texas, where production on the Model Y is expected to start in the coming weeks, was near completion. The site will also be used for production of the long-anticipated Cybertruck, which was spotted on a test track with new features last week, as well as the Model 3. An analyst told the Austin Business Journal that Tesla will likely see a slow kick-off to production in the early years, eventually hitting 500,000 per year as the Fremont and Shanghai factories reached.

Hiring also appears to be underway at the factory. Tesla had 400 jobs posted just a few weeks ago, and the number has now dropped to 167. Aside from Tesla, Musk’s other ventures like underground tunnel builder The Boring Company and Neuralink, which works on brain implants, are also seeing growth locally.