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SpaceX Starlink Factory Bastrop

Starlink Terminal Manufacturing and Semiconductor Packaging

The SpaceX Starlink factory at 858 FM 1209 in Bastrop County is the largest North American satellite-related manufacturing facility by output volume, producing Starlink user terminals and component parts at scale that no other US site matches. The facility sits within the broader Musk Bastrop Complex — the multi-entity compound in Bastrop County that also includes the Gigasat Factory (11M sqft AI satellite manufacturing campus), X Corp. headquarters, The Boring Company headquarters, and the Snailbrook company town.

A $280 million expansion announced in March 2025, backed by a $17.3 million Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund grant and expected to create 400+ jobs, will add approximately one million square feet to the facility over three years. The expansion focuses on in-house production of printed circuit boards (PCBs), a semiconductor failure analysis lab, and advanced packaging for panel-level packaging (PLP) — all for Starlink kits and their component parts, including advanced packaged silicon products. When complete, the Bastrop facility will be the largest PCB and PLP facility in North America per Governor Abbott's announcement. Equipment installation is underway, with production targeting end of 2026.

What the Factory Produces

Product Line	Description	Status
Starlink user terminals	Consumer and enterprise satellite internet terminals (dishes, routers, mounting hardware) for global Starlink subscriber base; 5M+ customers in 120+ countries	Volume production; operational
Starlink component parts	Kit-level components and sub-assemblies for terminal production	Volume production; operational
Printed circuit boards (PCBs)	In-house PCB production for Starlink hardware — part of the $280M expansion	Equipment installation underway; production targeting end of 2026
Panel-level packaging (PLP)	Advanced semiconductor packaging for Starlink silicon — largest PLP facility in North America when complete	Equipment installation underway; production targeting end of 2026
Semiconductor failure analysis lab	In-house failure analysis for packaged silicon quality and reliability	Part of the $280M expansion

The expansion's significance is the vertical integration it represents. SpaceX is moving PCB production and semiconductor packaging in-house rather than sourcing from the merchant packaging and PCB markets — the same supplier-independence logic that drives Tesla's Terafab program for automotive and compute silicon. Per SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell: "This grant will help continue to expand Bastrop's manufacturing for Starlink to help connect even more people across the state and around the world with high-speed, low-latency internet."

As the adjacent Gigasat Factory scales toward AI1 satellite production, the PCB and packaging capabilities being built for Starlink terminal manufacturing may also serve the broader AI satellite supply chain — though the TEF grant and $280M capex are specifically scoped to Starlink.

Expansion Timeline

Event	Date	Detail
Starlink R&D facility opened	Fall 2024	Initial semiconductor R&D facility at Bastrop
TEF grant and expansion announced	March 12, 2025	$17.3M Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund grant; $280M+ committed capex; 400+ jobs; 1M sqft expansion over 3 years
Project Echo office expansion	September 2025	$8M, 80,000 sqft office addition at 858 FM 1209; construction Sept 2025 – Jan 2026
Equipment installation underway	April 2026	Semiconductor packaging equipment being installed
PCB and PLP production target	End of 2026	In-house PCB and panel-level packaging production operational

Cross-Anchor Position

The Starlink factory connects to multiple AustinIO-covered anchors through the SpaceX vertical stack:

SpaceX Gigasat Factory (adjacent, same Bastrop campus) — the 11M sqft AI1 satellite manufacturing complex announced June 2026. The Starlink terminal operation and the Gigasat satellite operation share site infrastructure, workforce, and potentially the PCB and packaging capabilities being built under the $280M expansion. See SpaceX Gigasat Factory.

SpaceX Starbase (Boca Chica) is the deployment anchor — Starlink satellites carrying the silicon packaged at Bastrop launch from Starbase. The Starbase Cluster groups Cameron, McLennan, and Bastrop counties as one operationally-integrated SpaceX vertical stack despite 350+ miles of geographic dispersion.

SpaceX McGregor Engine Factory (McLennan County) provides propulsion for Starbase deployment vehicles. McGregor and Bastrop are sister sites in the same vertical stack.

Tesla Giga Texas contributes silicon design. As the Starlink operation moves toward in-house advanced packaging, the facility becomes a node in the broader Tesla-SpaceX silicon pipeline — Tesla AI silicon design → foundry fabrication → Bastrop packaging → orbital deployment.

UT Austin TIE NGMM Center provides the federally-anchored 3DHI advanced packaging research substrate ($840M+ DARPA-coordinated program) that surrounds the Bastrop campus's commercial packaging operations.

Why Bastrop

SpaceX selected Bastrop County for the original Starlink terminal facility because of land availability, low cost basis, proximity to the Austin metro for engineering and supply chain access, and Texas's regulatory and labor environment. The $280M expansion built on these foundations rather than relocating — the existing terminal operation provides workforce and operational base that the semiconductor packaging expansion leverages. The subsequent Gigasat factory announcement (1,000+ acres on the same FM 1209 corridor) confirmed that SpaceX views the Bastrop substrate as the long-term manufacturing center for both ground-segment and space-segment hardware.

Bastrop's role within the broader SpaceX Texas footprint reflects a division of labor: Starbase handles launch and integration, McGregor handles engine production, Bastrop handles manufacturing (terminals, packaging, and now AI satellites). The three sites operate as one vertical stack, each specializing in operations that scale better when isolated from the others.

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