ELON Musk revealed his elaborate plans to turn his company’s headquarters into its own Texas city that could be a gateway to Mars and set him back billions of dollars.
The SpaceX boss, who has now moved to the Lone Star State, is set to expand his Starbase site located in Boca Chica Beach, near the border with Mexico.
Musk, 53, submitted a formal request to local officials on Thursday to put his rocket launch site as an incorporated city on the map.
The world’s richest man asked local officials, in a letter, to get an election rolling with residents to change the status of his high-tech spaceport base.
The letter said: “To continue growing the workforce necessary to rapidly develop and manufacture Starship, we need the ability to grow Starbase as a community.
“That is why we are requesting that Cameron County call an election to enable the incorporation of Starbase as the newest city in the Rio Grande Valley.”
More than 3,400 full-time SpaceX staff and contractors work at the Starbase site.
The tech billionaire announced in July that he would move SpaceX’s main office from Hawthorne, California, to Texas due to his disagreement with the state over a gender identity bill.
This law would bar school districts from requiring staff to notify parents of their child’s gender identification, which Musk called the “final straw”.
He wrote at the time: “I did make it clear to Governor Newsom about a year ago that laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children.”
The billionaire has already pumped hundreds of millions into his new project.
SpaceX’s letter said: “We are investing billions in infrastructure and generating hundreds of millions in income and taxes for local businesses and government, all with the goal of making South Texas the Gateway to Mars.”
It added: “Incorporating Starbase will streamline the processes required to build the amenities necessary to make the area a world class place to live-for the hundreds already calling it home, as well as for prospective workers eager to help build humanity’s future in space.”
Musk has already submitted project plans to the state for a $100 million five-story office on the site, according to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
The over 300,000-square-foot structure is set to be finished in early 2025.
With the billionaire already investing millions into the site his new plans could set him back billions if he is to keep growing the base.
Musk has already moved most of his companies and his personal life to the southern state.
He pulled a similar move in 2021 when he moved the Tesla headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, Texas.
Musk reportedly also bought a $35 million luxury mansion complex to home his twelve children and their mothers.
He allegedly purchased two homes, including a 14,400-square-foot Tuscan-style villa, within walking distance of one another in Austin, Texas, The Sun has previously reported.
The entrepreneur’s property portfolio in Austin has not been limited to these two as he is said to have a third mansion around a 10-minute walk away from his new homes.
Musk had twelve children with three different women.
His most recent ex Shivon Zilis, an executive at his brain tech company Neuralink, has reportedly already moved in.
Zilis had twins Strider and Azure with Musk in 2021 and the pair welcomed a third child, whose name is not known, this year.
Musk reportedly bought the huge complex despite currently being in a custody battle over his three children with the Canadian singer Grimes.
THE tech billionaire has revolutionised the electric car world and social media but he has long had his heart set on getting humans to Mars.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has planned to colonise the red planet by sending humans there on its spaceships to live.
The world’s richest man recently claimed that he believed people could land on Mars within four years and be living on it in two decades.
He previously posted on X: “These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars.
“If those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in 4 years.
“Flight rate will grow exponentially from there, with the goal of building a self-sustaining city in about 20 years.”
Musk said he would launch five uncrewed Starships in 2025.
If these are successful he plans to send around 100 passengers every two years, on a nine-month journey to the planet.
Musk’s colonisation plans include his hopes to create a new species on the planet.
He said in a 2013 interview: “I think it’s quite likely that we’d want to bioengineer new organisms that are better suited to living on Mars.
“Humanity’s kind of done that over time, by sort of selective breeding.”
