Austin-Waco I-35 and I-14 Corridor

Fort Hood · SpaceX McGregor · Bell and McLennan Counties

I-35 links Austin's defense startups and Dell to Temple's data centers, Fort Hood and the Waco area. Fort Hood and SpaceX's McGregor engine test site are the two federal-scale anchors between Austin and Waco.

  • Data centers
  • Aerospace and defense
  • Manufacturing and materials
Map of I-35 from Austin to Waco, with I-14 west to Killeen and Fort Hood, US 84 to McGregor, and the defense, space, data center and training sites Dell Round Rock Fort Hood Meta Temple Rowan Temple Wilsonart SpaceX McGregor Baylor University TSTC Waco I-35 I-14 / US 190 DELL ROUND ROCK FORT HOOD META TEMPLE ROWAN TEMPLE WILSONART SPACEX MCGREGOR BAYLOR UNIVERSITY TSTC WACO AUSTIN ROUND ROCK GEORGETOWN BELTON KILLEEN MCGREGOR WACO LOCATIONS APPROXIMATE
Defense
Fort Hood
Space
SpaceX McGregor
Data centers
Meta, Rowan in Temple
Fort Hood output
$37.9B (2025)
Counties
Bell, McLennan

Overview

Fort Hood and SpaceX McGregor Anchor I-35 Between Austin and Waco

I-35 runs about 100 miles from Austin through Round Rock, Georgetown, Belton and Temple to Waco. I-14, signed on the US 190 alignment, runs west from I-35 at Belton through Killeen to Copperas Cove along Fort Hood; TxDOT is studying its extension east through Temple. McGregor sits about 20 miles southwest of Waco on US 84.

Fort Hood, home of III Armored Corps and the 1st Cavalry Division, is the second-largest military economic engine in Texas after Joint Base San Antonio. The Texas Comptroller's 2026 report put its 2025 economic output at $37.9B, with 53,767 direct jobs and 159,692 total jobs. The Army restored the Fort Hood name in 2025 after two years as Fort Cavazos.

SpaceX McGregor, on 4,300 acres of the former Bluebonnet Ordnance Plant, tests Merlin and Raptor engines and Draco thrusters before flight and runs Raptor 3 qualification for Starship.

Small-drone production is led by China's DJI, and Chinese suppliers dominate the neodymium magnets in drone and missile motors. MP Materials' Fort Worth magnet plant is the Texas effort to replace that supply for Army and counter-drone programs.

Profile
SpineI-35, Austin to Waco
Crossing interstateI-14 (US 190), Belton to Copperas Cove
CountiesTravis, Williamson, Bell, Coryell, McLennan
Defense anchorFort Hood (III Armored Corps)
Space anchorSpaceX McGregor engine test site
Data centersMeta Temple, Rowan Temple
TrainingTSTC Waco; Heroes MAKE America
ResearchBaylor University

Anchors

Army, Rocket Engines and Temple Data Centers

Main anchors along the Austin-Waco corridor
AnchorPlaceSectorDetail
Dell TechnologiesRound RockComputers, AI serversGlobal headquarters
Fort HoodKilleen, Bell and Coryell countiesArmy$37.9B economic output (2025)
Meta TempleTemple, 393 acresHyperscale data center$800M, ~900,000 sq ft; finishing 2026
Rowan Digital InfrastructureTemple, Bob White RoadData center campus$700M, up to 300 MW; broke ground Jan 2026
WilsonartTempleLaminates, surfacesAmericas headquarters
SpaceX McGregorMcGregor, McLennan CountyRocket engine testingMerlin, Raptor, Draco
TSTC WacoWacoTechnical training, airportHeroes MAKE America training site
Baylor UniversityWacoResearch universityBaylor Research and Innovation Collaborative

Defense Pipeline

Austin Defense Startups 60 Miles From the Army's Largest Armored Post

Austin's defense-tech firms sit an hour down I-35 from Fort Hood. Saronic closed a $1.75B Series D at a $9.25B valuation in March 2026 and plans a $3.2B Port Alpha shipyard in Texas. Allen Control Systems builds the Bullfrog counter-drone weapon station in Austin. The Army's Operational Test Command at Fort Hood runs operational tests of new Army equipment.

Heroes MAKE America, the Manufacturing Institute's program for transitioning soldiers, trains Fort Hood service members in a 12-week mechatronics course at TSTC Waco with seven SACA (Smart Automation Certification Alliance) certifications, then places them with Texas manufacturers.

The Golden Dome Texas corridor page traces the missile-defense supply chain these anchors feed, from radiation testing at the Cyclotron Institute to trusted fabrication at SkyWater Fab 25 and fighter production at Lockheed Martin Fort Worth.

Connections

Round Rock and Temple Tie I-35 to the Other Austin Corridors

At Round Rock, I-35 meets the US 79 corridor to Samsung Taylor and Blue Origin Hutto, and SH 45 leads west to the US 183 corridor and Firefly in Cedar Park. Georgetown is the north end of the Georgetown-Hutto-Taylor data center corridor.

In Austin the corridor meets the SH 130 corridor to Tesla Giga Texas and the Austin-San Antonio corridor south. The Austin aerospace and space corridor page covers Firefly, CTSDC, Blue Origin and SpaceX McGregor together.

Record

Dataset Record

Sources
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, KWTX, Killeen Daily Herald, Baxtel, TxDOT, Killeen-Temple MPO, Manufacturing Institute, SpaceX, PR Newswire (Saronic), MP Materials
Last verified
October 2026