Elon Musk's Secret Web of Companies in Texas: How the World's Richest Man Built a Hidden Empire

 

# Elon Musk's Secret Web of Companies in Texas: How the World's Richest Man Built a Hidden Empire

**Published: February 28, 2026**

You know how when someone says they're selling almost everything they own and living with almost nothing, you kind of believe them?

Back in 2020, Elon Musk announced he was moving from California to Texas and embarking on this whole personal austerity thing. "I am selling almost all physical possessions," he posted on social media. "Will own no house."

It made for a great story. The world's richest man, living simply, no attachments, just focused on the mission.

Turns out, that wasn't exactly the full picture.

A massive investigation by The New York Times has pulled back the curtain on something Musk never really talked about: a hidden web of more than **90 companies and legal entities** he's quietly built in Texas since moving there . These aren't all SpaceX or Tesla subsidiaries. Many are personal companies, designed to buy land, manage properties, and even pour money into political campaigns—all while keeping Musk's name off the paperwork.

Let me walk you through what this secret empire actually looks like, why it matters, and what it tells us about how the ultrawealthy operate.

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## The Short Version

**What the investigation found:** Elon Musk has quietly created more than **90 companies and legal entities in Texas** since moving there in 2020 .

**The breakdown:**

- More than 50 entities tied to his public businesses (SpaceX, Tesla, Musk Foundation)

- At least **37 companies that appear to serve personal functions**—buying land, managing properties, handling political spending 

**What they own:**

- Over **1,000 acres of land** across Bastrop and Travis Counties (more than Central Park) 

- Two luxury condos in the Austin Proper Hotel (totaling over 7,000 square feet)

- Multiple homes for mothers of his children

- A private airstrip and plane management companies

- A planned town called Snailbrook for his employees 

**The political angle:** Musk used at least four Texas-based companies to funnel nearly **$80 million in services** to America PAC, his super PAC supporting Donald Trump's 2024 campaign—a highly unusual setup that campaign finance experts say obscured where the money was going .

**The bottom line:** The image of Musk as a minimalist with no possessions was always incomplete. Behind the scenes, he was building one of the most intricate personal corporate structures ever assembled.

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## The Hidden Network: How Musk Built It

Let's start with the mechanics, because the scale here is genuinely impressive—and intentionally opaque.

### The LLC Strategy

Limited liability companies (LLCs) are the tool of choice for the ultrawealthy. They're designed to shield owners from legal and financial risks, and they also shield them from public scrutiny . Musk has used them extensively.

Of the 37 personal companies The Times identified, nearly half were formed in Musk's first two years in Texas. Three have since become inactive .

**The key players:** Musk's longtime money manager, Jared Birchall, is listed as the manager or president on many of these entities. Another Musk lieutenant, Steve Davis, also appears on multiple filings .

**The addresses game:** At least 15 of Musk's companies—including his family office Excession LLC and another called Red Planet Ventures I LLC—list the same post office box in the Austin suburbs as their main address. That same PO box is on Musk's voter registration .

**The confusion factor:** Some people working at addresses tied to Musk's companies didn't even realize they were connected to him. Rob Berry, who owns a high-end auto body shop outside Austin at an address once linked to a Musk LLC called Bushwhacker, told The Times: "They really kept to themselves" .

### The Numbers

**Table 1: Musk's Texas Company Network**

| **Category** | **Number of Entities** |

| :--- | :--- |

| Total companies identified | 90+ |

| Business-related (SpaceX, Tesla, etc.) | 50+ |

| Personal use companies | At least 37 |

| Formed in first two years in Texas | ~18 |

| Now inactive | 3 |

*Source: *

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## The Land Empire: More Than 1,000 Acres and Counting

This is where the hidden empire gets really tangible. Musk has been quietly buying up land across Texas, often through LLCs with innocuous names that give no hint of his involvement.

### The Bastrop County Footprint

About 45 minutes east of Austin, Bastrop County has become ground zero for Musk's personal land holdings. The area is now dotted with properties tied to his network.

**The largest tract:** About **530 acres** just outside Austin, directly across from a Tesla factory, is owned by a company called **Horse Ranch LLC**, formed in 2021 with Birchall as manager. Most of the land is still vacant, but construction crews have been spotted on site recently .

**The Neuralink connection:** On 110 acres in Del Valle, a large building is under construction along a country road. The land is owned by **River Bottoms Ranch LLC**, which Birchall established in 2021. Filings tie it to Neuralink, Musk's brain implant company. In a separate filing, River Bottoms Ranch lists another LLC—**Three Little Pigs LLC**—as a parent company. (In 2020, Musk gave a Neuralink presentation involving three pigs, which he called his "three little pigs demonstration") .

**The school project:** In April 2023, **BSP 2023 LLC**, another Birchall-tied entity, bought roughly 40 acres. Musk has put a school called **Ad Astra** on the property, which aims to let children learn at their own pace .

**The Snailbrook development:** About a five-minute drive from the school, another LLC called **Gapped Bass LLC** (formed by Steve Davis) bought roughly 215 acres. This land houses facilities for The Boring Co., Musk's tunneling venture. It's also where Musk is trying to build a town called **Snailbrook**—an area with tract houses, a pool, and a tennis court. Across the road, SpaceX owns about 230 acres. (Records show Gapped Bass recently sold some land to SpaceX) .

**Table 2: Musk's Major Texas Land Holdings**

| **LLC Name** | **Acres** | **Purpose/Location** | **Managed By** |

| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |

| Horse Ranch LLC | ~530 | Vacant land near Tesla factory | Jared Birchall |

| River Bottoms Ranch LLC | 110 | Neuralink facility, Del Valle | Jared Birchall |

| BSP 2023 LLC | ~40 | Ad Astra school | Jared Birchall |

| Gapped Bass LLC | ~215 | Snailbrook town, Boring Co. facilities | Steve Davis |

| Earhardt Manor LLC | N/A | Ranch house for Ad Astra | Steve Davis |

*Source: *

### Friends and Acquaintances Join In

Musk's network extends beyond his own companies. Friends and associates have also bought land nearby:

- The **University of Austin**, focused on free expression and spearheaded by Bari Weiss (now editor-in-chief of CBS News) and Joe Lonsdale (a Palantir founder), is building an applied engineering lab near Musk's land .

- **Randy Glein**, a SpaceX investor who helped fund Musk's 2022 Twitter acquisition, bought more than 21 acres nearby via an LLC called Bastrop1 .

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## The Properties: Where Musk Actually Lives

For someone who said he'd own no house, Musk has quite an extensive real estate portfolio—he just doesn't own it directly.

### The Austin Proper Condos

Two luxury condominium units in the trendy Austin Proper Hotel, totaling more than 7,000 square feet with sweeping downtown views, are owned by **AJG Growth Fund LLC**, registered in Delaware and managed by Antonio Gracias, one of Musk's longtime friends. The company also owns Tesla stock .

Musk and his partner Shivon Zilis moved into one of the condos for a time around 2022, according to three people with knowledge of the move. Hotel staff were told to keep the floor numbers secret for privacy .

It's unclear whether Gracias is simply letting Musk use the condos or bought them on behalf of the billionaire. Either way, Musk's name isn't on any paperwork.

### The Decoy Strategy

According to people familiar with Musk's operations, he has bought "decoy" properties around Texas to keep people guessing where he's actually living. For example, he purchased at least one home in the exclusive, gated community of Spanish Oaks outside Austin .

### Homes for the Mothers of His Children

Starting in 2022, Musk used LLCs with generic names to buy three houses totaling about **31,000 square feet** for some mothers of his children. (He has at least 14 children, including at least four with Zilis) .

**Table 3: Properties for Musk's Children's Mothers**

| **LLC Name** | **Location** | **Details** |

| :--- | :--- | :--- |

| Stratford House LLC | West Lake Hills | ~$6M home; Musk lived here with Grimes and children |

| Z Fox Holdings Texas LLC | Undisclosed | Owned by another LLC |

| SHL Property LLC | Undisclosed | Recently sold to another LLC |

*Source: *

### The Ranch House on Memes Street

Despite all this, Musk's voter registration still lists a modest ranch house on a road called **Memes Street** near SpaceX's Starbase headquarters in southern Texas .

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## The Political Money Machine

Here's where Musk's hidden network intersects with national politics in a big way.

### Funding Trump's 2024 Campaign

In 2024, Musk created two new Texas companies: **United States of America Inc.** and **Group America LLC**. He also tapped an older LLC called **Europa 100 LLC** (which he once used to pay his nannies) and his family office, **Excession** .

Together, these four companies provided almost **$80 million in services** to Musk's America PAC, the super PAC devoted to reelecting Donald Trump .

### The Unusual Structure

Here's why this matters: Instead of the PAC paying expenses directly, Musk's companies took on that job. For example, **United States of America Inc.** issued $47 checks to voters who signed a petition pledging support for the First and Second Amendments—a controversial effort to help mobilize Trump voters. It also paid for political consulting, travel, and food .

**Why this is unusual:** Super PACs are required to publicly disclose each individual payment. But when private companies cover expenses, those disclosures don't happen.

**Brendan Fischer**, a director at the Campaign Legal Center who examined the transactions for The Times, said Musk was able to "mask where the money was going" by using this structure .

### The Scale

**Table 4: Musk's Political Spending Structure**

| **Company Used** | **Role** | **Services Provided** |

| :--- | :--- | :--- |

| United States of America Inc. | New LLC created in 2024 | $47 checks to petition signers, consulting, travel, food |

| Group America LLC | New LLC created in 2024 | Undisclosed campaign services |

| Europa 100 LLC | Old LLC (formerly for nannies) | Undisclosed campaign services |

| Excession LLC | Family office | Overall coordination |

*Source: *

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## The Business Empire: Beyond the Personal

The personal companies are just one piece of the puzzle. Musk's public businesses also have an enormous Texas footprint.

### SpaceX's Starbase

SpaceX has invested an estimated **$3 billion** at its Starbase facility in Boca Chica, near the Mexican border. The company has generated economic output in south Texas reportedly exceeding **$13 billion** and created more than **24,000 direct and indirect jobs** over the past two years .

The company is constantly expanding. In Bastrop County, a SpaceX factory that already sits at 1.1 million square feet is getting even bigger. A new building under construction is already the size of a mall .

### The SpaceX-xAI Merger

Just this month, Musk announced he's merging SpaceX with his AI startup xAI in a deal valuing the combined entity at **$1.25 trillion** . The goal: build orbital data centers in space, using SpaceX's Starship rockets to launch them.

Musk's logic: "It's always sunny in space!" 

### The Boring Co. and Snailbrook

The Boring Co.'s facilities are now operating on the Gapped Bass land in Bastrop County, part of the Snailbrook development .

### Tesla's Robotaxis

Tesla's robotaxi service launched in Austin in June 2025, initially with human safety supervisors. Musk said at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January that the service will be "very, very widespread by the end of this year within the U.S." .

The service is now operating "with no safety monitor" in some Austin vehicles .

### The Optimus Robot

Tesla is ramping up production of its Optimus humanoid robot. The Optimus 3 will be built in California, but the **Optimus 4 will be built in Texas at much higher volume** at Gigafactory Texas in Austin .

Musk's production goals include "a million units a year" .

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## The Legal and Ethical Questions

Musk's use of LLCs is perfectly legal. The ultrawealthy use them all the time to protect privacy and manage assets.

**Mitchell Gans**, a law professor at Hofstra University, told The Times that LLCs are now used so frequently that some billionaires can't even keep track of how many they operate. "Most people of normal means probably have none," he said .

**But the political spending raises questions.** Campaign finance experts say Musk's structure of having private companies cover PAC expenses—rather than the PAC paying directly—obscured where money was going in ways that typical super PAC disclosures wouldn't allow .

**The broader question:** When one person controls this much land, this many companies, and this much political influence, what does that mean for everyone else?

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## What This Means for Different People

### If You Live in Bastrop County

You might have noticed a lot of construction. You might have neighbors you don't know much about. And you might be living near one of the most ambitious private developments in Texas history. The Snailbrook town project could bring jobs and infrastructure—but also change the character of the area.

### If You're a Musk Fan

The "no possessions" thing was always more about branding than reality. That doesn't make Musk a bad person—it just means he's like every other billionaire, using the tools available to manage massive wealth. The scale is just... bigger.

### If You're Concerned About Political Money

The $80 million funneled through private companies to support Trump's campaign is a case study in how campaign finance rules can be worked around. If this bothers you, it's worth paying attention to reform efforts.

### If You're Just Curious

This is a fascinating window into how the ultrawealthy operate. Most of us have a bank account, maybe a mortgage. Musk has 90 companies, thousands of acres, and a whole town he's building from scratch. It's a different universe.

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## Frequently Asked Questions

**Q: How many companies does Elon Musk have in Texas?**

A: According to The New York Times investigation, Musk has quietly built more than 90 companies and legal entities in Texas since moving there in 2020. More than 50 are tied to his public businesses, while at least 37 appear to serve personal functions .

**Q: What do the personal companies do?**

A: They buy and manage land, own properties (including homes for mothers of his children), manage private planes, and even funnel political spending. They've amassed more than 1,000 acres of land across Bastrop and Travis Counties .

**Q: Does Musk really own no house?**

A: Not exactly. He doesn't personally own houses—the properties are owned by LLCs with no trace of his name. He has two luxury condos in the Austin Proper Hotel (owned by a friend's LLC), multiple homes for his children's mothers (owned by various LLCs), and "decoy" properties to throw people off .

**Q: What's Snailbrook?**

A: It's a town Musk is trying to build in Bastrop County for his employees. The area includes tract houses, a pool, a tennis court, and facilities for The Boring Co. .

**Q: How much land does Musk own in Texas?**

A: Through his personal LLCs, Musk has amassed more than 1,000 acres across Bastrop and Travis Counties. That's more than Central Park. His public companies like SpaceX and Tesla own thousands more additional acres .

**Q: Is any of this illegal?**

A: No. Using LLCs to manage assets and maintain privacy is common among the ultrawealthy. The political spending structure is unusual but not illegal—it just obscures where money is going in ways campaign finance experts say undermines disclosure rules .

**Q: What's the SpaceX-xAI merger about?**

A: Musk is merging his SpaceX rocket company with his AI startup xAI in a deal valuing the combined entity at $1.25 trillion. The goal is to build orbital data centers in space, launched by SpaceX's Starship rockets .

**Q: What are Musk's production plans for Texas?**

A: Tesla's Gigafactory Texas in Austin will build the Optimus 4 robot at "much higher volume" starting in 2027. The robotaxi service is already operating in Austin without safety monitors. SpaceX is constantly expanding its Bastrop County factory .

**Q: How much did Musk spend on Trump's campaign?**

A: Through four Texas-based companies, Musk funneled nearly $80 million in services to his America PAC, which supported Donald Trump's 2024 campaign. The structure allowed him to avoid detailed disclosure of where the money was going .

**Q: Why does any of this matter?**

A: It matters because it shows how one person can accumulate enormous power—land, economic influence, political spending—with very little public visibility. The "no possessions" story was incomplete, and the reality is far more complex.

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## The Bottom Line

Here's what I keep coming back to.

In 2020, Elon Musk presented himself as a man shedding possessions, simplifying his life, focusing on the mission. It was a compelling narrative—the billionaire who didn't care about stuff, who was all-in on saving humanity.

The New York Times investigation reveals that narrative was always incomplete. Behind the scenes, Musk was building one of the most intricate personal corporate structures ever assembled. Ninety companies. Thousands of acres. A whole town in progress. Millions in political spending, carefully obscured.

None of this is illegal. The ultrawealthy use LLCs all the time. But it's a reminder that the stories we're told—even by the people telling them—are rarely the whole story.

**The "no house" line** was technically true if you define "house" as something with his name on the deed. But he has access to multiple luxury properties, owns homes for his children's mothers, and has enough land to build a small city.

**The "selling possessions" line** was also technically true—if you define "possessions" as things he personally owned. The LLCs own everything now.

For the rest of us, this is a window into how the 0.0001% operate. They don't own things directly. They own companies that own things. They use layers of legal entities to manage privacy, limit liability, and control the narrative.

**Mitchell Gans**, the Hofstra law professor, put it in perspective: "Most people of normal means probably have none" .

Most of us have a checking account and maybe a mortgage. Elon Musk has 90 companies, 1,000 acres, and a town he's naming after a meme.

It's a different world.

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*Got thoughts on Musk's Texas empire? Surprised by the scale? Drop a comment and let me know.*