SpaceX adds a TV station's Terafab records request to its court fight as project land in Grimes County passes 10,000 acres

SpaceX has widened its court fight over Terafab records in Grimes County, and the company tied to the project now controls more than 10,000 acres around the planned chip plant, KBTX reported Wednesday.

Grimes Central Appraisal District records reviewed by the station showed WIT TECH LLC holding more than 70 active property accounts covering over 10,000 acres around the Terafab site as of Tuesday. The project is meant to make semiconductors and AI hardware, and SpaceX has said it would bring 3,000 permanent jobs.

KBTX counted 84 Terafab job openings, including internships, on Tuesday; the station noted that neither the listings nor the property records show how far along each piece of the project is.

A second records request pulled into the lawsuit

The new filing concerns records KBTX itself asked for. In June, the station requested Grimes County documents on Terafab, covering tax incentives, economic studies and communications between SpaceX and county officials. The Texas attorney general's office ruled Aug. 24 that the county could withhold some attorney-client communications but had to turn over the remainder, according to the station.

The ruling also found the county sent the requested information to the attorney general one business day late.

In September, SpaceX filed suit against Grimes County and the attorney general over a separate ruling on records sought by residents. In an amended petition posted Nov. 9, the company added a challenge to the ruling on KBTX's request, KBTX reported.

The petition lists the station's news director as a requestor rather than a defendant and says those requestors can decide for themselves whether to take part.

The company argues the attorney general's office did not deal with its own objections to disclosure. It wants the court to stop the release of material it considers confidential, including some negotiating documents, financial information and information that could identify employees, and says it will hand the judge marked copies to review privately.

SpaceX has said releasing some of the information could cause substantial competitive harm.

Grimes County Citizens for Responsible Development, a residents' group, joined the case Oct. 28, asking that the project's tax abatement records be made public.

The dispute is playing out weeks before Gina Hinojosa is sworn in as governor in January. She has pushed for more openness about the state's relationship with Elon Musk's companies, citing the incentives they have received from taxpayers, the station reported.

Sources

KBTX