I posted this on Facebook on September 7. It lives here too so it’s on the record.
This morning I told you xAI’s job listing for a gas power plant had moved from Memphis to Texas, and nobody would say where. Three folks gave me some leads in the comments. I spent the afternoon checking, and I think we found the answer.
It’s Grimes County. That’s about 20 miles east of College Station, out at the old Gibbons Creek coal plant and the lake next to it. SpaceX is building a giant chip factory there. They call it TeraFab.
The county gave it a tax deal on June 3rd. And the county’s own filings – a local residents’ group put them online – say the place comes with “on-site power generation,” “gas turbines,” and “utility-scale battery storage.” Per KBTX, SpaceX told the county it plans to spend $55 billion building the place to start, and up to $119 billion if it builds everything.
The reason I care about a chip factory in Texas is the land. It was bought by a company called Wit Tech LLC. Per KWTX, Wit Tech’s address is 1450 Page Mill Road in Palo Alto – that’s xAI’s HQ – and the guy signing for it is Jared Birchall. He runs Elon Musk’s family office.
He’s also the one officer named on the Wyoming filing for MZX Tech – that’s the company that holds the Southaven turbine permit. Also per KBTX, by late Aug Wit Tech owned more than 4,600 acres, including a river pump station that can push 11,000 gallons a minute into the lake.
Nothing in the county filings or the TX coverage I read today says the Doosan plant from this morning’s listing is going to Gibbons Creek. The filings say gas turbines. They don’t say how many or how big. And TeraFab is a chip factory, not a data center, but the filings mention a “space compute test facility.”
The Information said back in July that SpaceXAI is also shopping for a Texas data center as big as Memphis or bigger, and it’s hiring in Austin, Bastrop, and Conroe. Could be Grimes County. Could be somewhere else.
Brownsville came up too. Per the Texas Tribune, the city voted on a Saturday night to hand about 445 acres by the port to SpaceX’s own town, Starbase, and SpaceX is putting up to $220 million into the city’s water system in return. SpaceX hasn’t said what the land’s for. Per the San Antonio Current, locals found a SpaceX job listing that says the company is “building and operating combined-cycle gas turbine power plants.”
If you live in Grimes or Cameron County, this is your move. A gas plant in Texas needs an air permit from TCEQ – that’s the state’s environmental agency – and the notices are public. Search them for TeraFab AI, Wit Tech, SpaceX, and X.AI. That’s how you find out before the turbines show up. Here in Memphis, the turbines ran for months before the company behind them even applied for an air permit.
Good luck!
If you like facts-first info on all this, consider leaving a tip on Venmo or PayPal – this stuff takes a lot of time to put together. And check out everything I’ve written with citations and receipts at the xAI Files.
Sources
- “Elon Musk-connected company now controls over 4,600 acres in Grimes County,” KBTX, August 20, 2026. The 4,600 acres and the Navasota River pump station.
- “Elon Musk-connected company buys land, water infrastructure before Grimes County’s SpaceX tax vote,” KWTX, June 25, 2026. The Palo Alto address and the Birchall signature.
- “Grimes County residents seeking more answers about possible SpaceX facility,” KBTX, May 6, 2026. The county notice’s $55 billion and $119 billion.
- The TeraFab filings and the June 3, 2026 county approval, as posted by Grimes County Citizens for Responsible Development.
- “SpaceX to fund Brownsville water projects in exchange for land,” The Texas Tribune, August 31, 2026.
- “Activists call foul over SpaceX’s secretive and rushed land deal with Brownsville city leaders,” San Antonio Current, September 2, 2026. The Starbase job listings.
- The Information’s July 2026 report on SpaceXAI’s Texas data center search, via Yahoo Finance.
- This morning’s news update on the Doosan listing, and the whole series.
Update, September 27th, 2026: One line now says what the record shows – that the Memphis turbines ran for months before the air permit application.
Everything I have written about AI is in one place at rachelandthecity.com/the-ai-files.