() — What do you give the billionaire who has everything? Perhaps his own city.
Entities connected to Elon Musk and his companies have reportedly been acquiring more than 1,000 acres of land in Texas in hopes of starting a city where their employees can live and work, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal published Thursday.
These entities have purchased at least 30,000 acres near Austin and are in the process of working to incorporate a town called Snailbrook, an apparent reference to the mascot of Musk’s tunneling company, The Boring Company, according to The Journal.
The report cites county deeds and other land records, as well as city and county emails, internal company communications, state license records, and interviews with landowners and city and county officials. ( has not reviewed all of the land and other records cited in the Journal’s report.)
Over the years, tech companies have offered numerous on-campus services to recruit workers and sometimes incentivize them to work longer hours. By building his own entrepreneurial city, Musk could take that approach even further.
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According to the report, Musk wants employees at his companies Boring Co., Tesla and SpaceX, all of which have major production facilities near Austin, “to be able to live in new homes with below-market rents.” Snailbrook’s effort also reportedly includes plans to build more than 100 homes, as well as neighborhood features such as a swimming pool and outdoor sports area.
The addition of a city could also give Musk, who has been known to clash with state and federal regulators, more of a say in how things are run.
Musk in 2020 announced that he would move Tesla’s headquarters and personal residence from California to Texas, blaming frustrations with California’s coronavirus-related restrictions. Last year, Tesla opened a new Gigafactory manufacturing plant in Austin. Musk’s SpaceX and Boring Co. also have facilities in Texas, and Boring Co. has reportedly been in talks with Austin about the possibility of building tunnels in the city, according to a February report in the Austin American Statesman.
Property records for Bastrop County, which sits next to Austin, show the Boring Co. owns 11 parcels of land at an address near the Colorado River where mobile homes have been built for the past three years, according to records reviewed. by . The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is scheduled to hold a meeting on plans for a wastewater treatment plant on the same site, which were filed by an LLC registered in the name of a Boring Co. executive, according to a public announcement. of the meeting.
That same entity also owns a number of nearby property parcels comprising land for commercial and residential buildings and grazing and crop land, public records show. The Journal reported that Musk’s team has discussed incorporating the city into Bastrop County. The county told the Journal that it had not received an incorporation application, which requires a certain number of residents, from Musk or any of its entities.
Tesla, SpaceX and Boring Co. did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
