Elon Musk’s ‘Empire’ in America: How a Town of 12,000 Was Transformed by Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter-X

Bastrop’s population is expected to increase by 42% in the next 5 years with a series of projects following in the footsteps of Elon Musk’s companies.

Bastrop is a town of 12,000 people with 131 registered historical sites, but it became Elon Musk’s “kingdom” when the world’s most powerful businessman, according to Fortune, moved here 3 years ago.

Housing prices are rising, farms and fields are being replaced by construction, there are more cars and more children.

Fortune said that Bastrop’s economy has grown significantly thanks to Elon Musk, or more accurately, his companies when they moved here.

The world’s richest billionaire has built a series of offices for many of his businesses in Bastrop. From Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet project with a 152,000-square-meter manufacturing facility to the Boring Company project or most recently, Twitter-X’s office is about to break ground.

Elon Musk’s companies are currently Bastrop’s largest employers, with countless images related to this billionaire. Boring Company employees wearing “Tunnel Mars” T-shirts strolling through baseball fields, countless Tesla electric cars running on the streets, and even a school called Ad Astra owned by Elon Musk to train interplanetary astronauts appearing.

“It’s like an alien flying saucer landed in town and a different group of people came out of nowhere,” Bastrop attorney Kay Rogers joked about Elon Musk’s influence on the town.

According to Fortune, Elon Musk’s plans for Bastrop are still a secret, even how many employees of the Tesla boss will come to this town are not clear statistics.

However, Bastrop has truly become a construction site for Elon Musk as the population of this town increases. The fact that the world’s most powerful businessman has placed many projects here has attracted countless companies and industries to come here to form a supply chain for Elon Musk.

Of the 27 projects being carried out in Bastrop’s District 1, only 3 are by Elon Musk, the rest are by businesses that follow him and want to form a supply chain for the Tesla boss.

Fortune reported that Bastrop residents are now talking about Elon Musk more than anything else. They worry about whether the world’s richest billionaire recruits workers who are not familiar with technology, whether the projects pollute the environment.

Time is money

Despite being so famous, Elon Musk rarely comes to town. Even local officials have never met this businessman.

This is understandable when Elon Musk values ​​work efficiency and has too many projects to implement. Not to mention that the Tesla boss often has to accompany Donald Trump after winning the US presidential election.

“Elon Musk’s culture is ‘Time is money’, his employees never let things go too late,” said Commissioner Mel Hamner of District 1-Bastrop.

The construction speed of Elon Musk’s projects in Bastrop is said to be extremely fast. Currently, SpaceX is adding 21.3 thousand square meters to the old Starlink building built in 2023, at the same time adding 1,000 new parking spaces.

In addition, Commissioner Hamner also expects Twitter-X’s office to be built here, bringing a series of new projects along with it.

Chief planning officer David Renfro of the Adelton neighborhood in West Bastrop said that Elon Musk’s projects have attracted many retailers and real estate companies to come here.

“With Elon Musk’s projects, the overall growth rate of the town has exploded because there’s more competition,” Renfro admitted.

“All of our master plans are being revised,” said Bastrop City Manager Sylvia Carrillo.

The town’s population is expected to increase by 42% over the next five years.

The influx of workers and employees from Elon Musk’s projects is believed to be a major reason why Chipotle opened its first restaurant in Bastrop. A series of banks, including Frost Bank and VeraBank, also opened their first branches here.

“Elon Musk’s employees are attractive customers and they are definitely a growing part of our customer base,” said Rick Womble, branch manager of Roscoe Bank in Bastrop.

Meanwhile, Liana Walker, a real estate agent in Bastrop, met with more than 100 Twitter-X employees this summer to talk about moving to Bastrop. She had to prepare a guide to the town to make sure Elon Musk’s employees felt comfortable and safe when they moved in.