Inside Elon Musk, subsidized at Texas headquarters, Texas

After escape from the Silicon Valley for political and business reasons, Elon Moscow builds a corporate campus in rural Texas – but his new neighbors are ambiguous views.

Half an hour to the east of Austin, the traffic killed, the movement begins to melt, and the plains of Central Texas open up, leaving the flowering city behind.

Somewhere along the main two -lane highway, the left turn takes drivers on the road to the 1209 market. It seems like this is an unlikely address for the high -tech center, but this is exactly what Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and one of President Donald Trump allies, hopes to become.

The court supplies show that the large metal building in the last few months will become a new X -Kqueston Headquarters, its platform on social media.

Not far, the big logo of the sad company, the infrastructure company Musk, is closed on the side of another Kokwater headquarters. And through the FM 1209 – this is a fast growing Spacex that produces Internet STARLINKS.

Like most Tycons technologies, Musk has long made a silicone valley to its home and a quoter headquarters. After a supporter of the Democrats, his move to Texas is part of a greater world tendency, and seems to reflect his own transformed ideological views.

Here the land (relatively) cheap, qualified technological workers from the nearest Austin are many, and local laws are favorable for development.

Of course, there are also specific political angles.

In July 2024, Moscow stated that he was thrown into California after the state passed a law that prohibits teachers to comply with families’ notifications when the gender identity changes.

In Musk there are Settled transgender daughter And he spoke against what he calls “woke up the virus” . Which he describes in an interview as a dividing identity policy with anti-merit and anti-boundary speech ideas.

That is why Musk raised regiments and headed to Texas, republican support and the fastest growing state in the US.

In addition to the cluster of buildings near Bastrop in Central Texas, it built a space object in Cameron county, on the southern tip of Texas near the Mexico border. SpaceX staff filed a petition for a new city called Starbase. The measure will vote in May.

The locals in Bastrape have ambiguous feelings for development.

“This is almost the way we have a split person,” says Sylvia Karila, the city head of Basrop, who is growing more than 12,000. “Residents are happy that their children and grandchildren will work in the area.

“On the other hand, we can feel that we are overloaded with a third person, and that development will soon urbanize our area,” she says.

Although the development of Musk is technically located in the city’s borders, it is close enough that Texas laws give the Bastropo government to develop. And, Mrs. Karila, he is loaded, the buildings of the musk – only one example of many events that arise in the boom zone.

“He collided with a reaction that is not fully creating it,” she says.

“But now that it is here and everything is changing, it is a matter of management” such problems as the prices of the house and the land and the environment, she says.

The mask connection is still quite bare bones. The community, named Hyperloop Plaza, sits in the middle of corporate buildings and is a home owned by Bodega, bar, cafes, hairdresser and souvenirs store.

In a recent wind day, the video game console sat on Sunday, without playing in front of the sofa near the demonstration of the company, while several children were leaning back and forth on the playground outside.

Bastrop developments fit directly at the rate of acceleration in Central Texas, where the cranes are constantly standing over the horizon of Austin, and the housing market is an eternal theme of the conversation.

For many years, the area has passed various industry booms and busts, including the production of lumber and coal, says Judy Enis, a volunteer guide at the Bastrop Museum and the visitors’ center.

During the Second World War, tens of thousands of soldiers – about 10,000 prisoners of war of German prisoners of war – poured into the Swift Camp, the US Army north of the city.

“It probably had more influence than Elon Musk,” said Ms. Anis.

The views of the tycoon are ambiguous and inseparable not only from his policies, but also the opinion on economic development, in the fact that it is still predominantly rural.

Judas grew up, a local real estate agent, says there is a population growth that began as a result of the Austin boom and accelerated during the pandemic.

“I will always be biased because I want to grow,” says Mr. Ross. “But I love him here and I want to become a part.

“If nothing else is good, it’s a number of jobs that it brings,” he says. “Last year I sold people working in Boring and SpaceX.”

Alfonso Lopez, Texas, who returned to the state after working in the technology in Seattle, says he initially chose the Bastropo, believing he would quickly make a home purchase and move on.

Instead, he quickly became interested in the city, the combination of local enterprises and friendly people, and wants to stay.

Mr. Lopez is not a great supporter of Musk and critically refers to some of his practices and management policies, but admires the technology that created his companies and are glad to live nearby while companies are good neighbors.

“As long as they do not ruin my water and dig the tunnel under my house and create a sink, it is not bad,” he says, pointing to the metal shedding in which Bodega, a cafe and a bar is located. “I’ll come here and see the game.”

His concern about water is more than theoretical. Last year, the Texan Environmental Commission was fined $ 11,876 (8,950 pounds) after being brought for water pollution.

The sad company initially planned to drop the wastewater in the nearby Colorado River, but after the local pressure signed a transaction to send the sludge to the cleaning station to clean the wastewater.

Water problems seem to have a home delay, which is reported to include more than 100 houses for musk staff. However, the planned development of houses has not yet been able to come true. So far, the degree of live premises are several temporary trailers behind the Bodeg building, surrounded by a wall, hectares of the Texas plain and several horses wishing herbs. Ms. Karila, the head of the city, says that any large-scale house is at least a year.

In November, SpaceX applied for a free trade zone that would allow it to move the materials and finished products to and leave the Bastrop factory without tariffs – one of Donald Trump’s signature politicians.

This is a common practice for manufacturers, and there are hundreds of similar zones across the country.

Local officials in Texas supported this proposal, saying it will increase the local economy, despite the fact that this year the county costs $ 45,000 (34,800 pounds).

The company also receives an injection of $ 17.3 million (13.4 million pounds) from the Texas government to develop a site, a grant, which, according to officials, is to create more than 400 jobs and $ 280 million in capital investment in Bastrop.

Few locals wanted to criticize Musk directly when he was facing the reporter. But this is another story on the Internet where more sharp feelings are viewed.

“They will ruin everything nearby,” said one resident on the local online forum. “Nothing good comes with him.”

BBC contacted SpaceX, a sad company and X for comments.

Ms. Karila, the city head, says she did not take much personal anger from the locals caused by Musk’s activities in Washington.

But for the protection of the Bastro, she said, the city recently adopted laws that restrict housing density, and providing state parks – measures that, according to her, will preserve the “historical character” of the well -preserved city, providing growth on the outskirts.

According to her, Bastrop is a conservative, traditionally a republican place.

“His national things are not actually registering,” she says. “His companies were good corporate citizens, and we hope it could remain like that.”