SpaceX has filed a lawsuit against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Grimes County over four public records requests the company says improperly exposed confidential information. The suit was filed Tuesday in Travis County before Judge Aurora Martinez Jones and centers on requests made by Vanessa Burzynski and Marie Egyed on behalf of Grimes County Citizens for Responsible Development. SpaceX claims the requests, submitted under the Texas Public Information Act, included documents marked confidential during economic development negotiations for a planned semiconductor manufacturing facility in Grimes County.
The company alleges that after submitting a tax abatement application in May for its proposed Terafab facility—a joint venture with Tesla—Burzynski and Egyed sought access to confidential negotiations between SpaceX and county officials. SpaceX says it expected the county to protect the information and notify the company of public records requests so it could assert its own exceptions. One request was withdrawn before a ruling, and another contained no relevant documents, according to the lawsuit.
The dispute arises as SpaceX expands into advanced semiconductor and AI-hardware manufacturing, a move tied to its plans to deploy AI data centers in space. The Terafab facility, which would produce components for SpaceX’s Starship and other projects, is central to the company’s push into terrestrial manufacturing. The tax abatement application, submitted shortly before the public records requests, included confidential terms and correspondence with county consultants.
SpaceX’s lawsuit argues that the county failed to safeguard proprietary information, violating its own policies on economic development negotiations. The company is seeking unspecified damages and an injunction to prevent further disclosure. The case could test how Texas handles public records requests involving confidential business dealings, particularly in counties pursuing major industrial projects. The outcome may influence similar disputes across the state as companies balance transparency with competitive advantage.