SpaceX pushes into chipmaking
Social reporting notes SpaceX is building a Bastrop chip plant, a move that signals vertical integration into semiconductors for satellite and rocket hardware. The plant is presented as a way to reduce reliance on external suppliers for specialized onboard compute. (x.com)
SpaceX is outfitting a semiconductor facility in Bastrop, Texas, extending its factory footprint from rockets and satellite dishes into chip packaging. (gov.texas.gov) Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on March 12, 2025 that SpaceX won a $17.3 million Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund grant for a Bastrop expansion tied to semiconductor research, development and advanced packaging. The state said the project would create more than 400 jobs and involve more than $280 million in capital investment. (gov.texas.gov) The governor’s office said the Bastrop site would grow by 1 million square feet over three years to make Starlink kits and component parts, including advanced packaged silicon products, printed circuit boards and a semiconductor failure-analysis lab. It said the completed site would be the largest printed circuit board and panel-level packaging facility in North America. (gov.texas.gov) Chip packaging is the step after a chip is fabricated: the silicon die gets wired, protected and connected so it can survive heat, vibration and power demands inside real hardware. Panel-level packaging does that work on large flat panels instead of one chip package at a time, a method companies use to push down cost and raise throughput. (gov.texas.gov) That matters for SpaceX because Starlink is no longer a side project. SpaceX says Starlink now serves more than 5 million people and businesses in more than 120 countries and territories, and the company says its next Direct to Cell satellites will rely on custom SpaceX-designed silicon. (gov.texas.gov) (spacex.com 1) (spacex.com 2) Bastrop was already becoming one of SpaceX’s main manufacturing hubs before the chip push. A Texas licensing filing for 858 FM 1209 shows an $8 million addition to an existing building totaling 700,000 square feet, with the project marked closed in 2025. (tdlr.texas.gov) Another Texas filing, registered on December 16, 2025, shows a new 157,321-square-foot parking garage at 888 FM 1209 with an estimated cost of $20 million and a completion date of January 7, 2027. The filing lists SpaceX as the owner. (tdlr.texas.gov) SpaceX’s public jobs page also shows Bastrop hiring across Starlink roles, adding to evidence that the company is building out the site as a long-term production base rather than a single-purpose warehouse. (spacex.com) SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said in the March 2025 state announcement that the company was investing “hundreds of millions of dollars” in Bastrop. The immediate next test is whether that Texas complex starts turning more of Starlink’s electronics into in-house hardware by the end of 2026. (gov.texas.gov)
