SpaceX sues Texas officials to keep Terafab tax-break records sealed

Lawsuit targets Grimes County records release

SpaceX filed suit in Travis County's 126th District Court this week seeking to stop Grimes County from releasing public records tied to its Terafab project, naming Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, in his official capacity, and Grimes County as defendants. The petition asks a judge for a temporary restraining order and an injunction that would block any disclosure while the case is pending. The filing describes Terafab as a semiconductor and AI-hardware manufacturing plant proposed in Grimes County in collaboration with Tesla, with chip production intended to support plans to put AI data centers in space.

Categories of documents SpaceX wants shielded

In the petition, SpaceX asks the court to declare several categories of information exempt from public release, including the company's tax abatement application in its entirety along with term proposals and negotiating correspondence with the county; technical and project information related to Terafab's design and development; site-location and land-acquisition records; cost and financial information tied to the project; and personnel information, including direct contact details for SpaceX employees and representatives. The company argues that disclosing those records would cause it "substantial competitive harm" by revealing its negotiating strategy, project costs and technical approach to competitors and other jurisdictions, and that some technical material is shielded under Texas homeland-security rules for critical infrastructure.

How the dispute reached court

The dispute stems from records requests filed in June by Grimes County Citizens for Responsible Development (GCCRD) and a separate request from a county resident, who sought SpaceX's tax abatement application and the negotiation records showing how the Terafab deal was put together. Grimes County withheld much of that set, but on July 28 the Attorney General's office largely rejected the county's arguments, allowing only certain attorney-client material to remain secret and noting that trade-secret protections belong to the business, not the county. SpaceX is now making those trade-secret arguments itself in court rather than letting the release proceed.

Local response and earlier milestones

Marie Egyed, director of operations for Grimes County Citizens for Responsible Development, said the group's concern is whether information about a massive economic-development project, including the application for public tax incentives and the negotiations surrounding them, should be withheld from the residents whose county is making those decisions, adding that the group is reviewing whether to intervene. Earlier Terafab milestones in Texas reporting have tracked a roughly $119 billion chip-factory plan and an August SpaceX–Tesla groundbreaking at the site, and the project has previously been tied to state-level minimum job and wage terms.

Other developments

Separately, SpaceX stock moved on September 10, 2026 amid broader market activity following the release of August's Producer Price Index data and headlines around a data-center overhaul and a budding UK defense deal, with the price-to-sales ratio cited as a marker of growth expectations in trading coverage of the shares.