Americans say they want transparency from AI companies.
Someone tell Elon Musk.
SpaceX filed a lawsuit in Texas this week to block the release of documents related to tax benefits received for Terafabthe 100 million-square-foot semiconductor factory it’s building near Houston.
The data, which Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office said in July should be released, includes SpaceX’s tax abatement application and related negotiations between SpaceX and Grimes County officials.
The lawsuit comes as hyperscale data centers and other major AI projects face nationwide backlash from Americans, many of whom are demanding more transparency from the tech companies building the centers in their communities.
Public Citizen, a progressive think tank, published a report in July detailing what it described as extensive use of non-disclosure agreements between local officials and data center developers.
“These non-disclosure agreements lock out the public from decisions that could determine their rates for decades,” the report said.
In a recent interview with ABC News, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said data center developers are not getting support from local residents before undertaking projects.
Other leading tech companies, such as OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Microsoft, and Meta, are trumpeting transparency as they race to build the centers they need to fuel AI growth.
In a March blog post, Microsoft pledged to stop using non-disclosure agreements with local governments “as the next step in our work to achieve that transparency.”
SpaceX appears to be taking a different approach.
The company said in the lawsuit that the tax benefit data contains “confidential information” and that releasing it “would reveal SpaceX’s negotiating strategy, concessions and boundaries to every jurisdiction, competitor and counterparty with which SpaceX negotiates in the future.”
The Terafab project is a joint venture with Tesla and Intel. Musk has said that once online, it could vastly increase the global supply of semiconductor chips, which is crucial to SpaceX’s plans to AI data centers and Tesla’s rollout of autonomous robotaxis and humanoid robots.
The data was originally requested by Marie Egyed and Vanessa Burzynski, two Grimes County residents. Paxton’s office said in July that data on Terafab’s tax benefits and certain email chains did not qualify for exemptions that would block their release.
SpaceX agreed to pay the county $20 million each year, or about 78% of what the county would have paid in property taxes, SpaceX lawyer says Bucky Brannen told residents at a county meeting in August.
Egyed is a member of the Grimes County Citizens for Responsible Development, a group that opposes Terafab development. In a text message, she said SpaceX’s lawsuit to block tax cut data “definitely makes you want to know what’s in it.”
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday morning.
Although SpaceX is a private company, the data sought by Egyed is in the possession of Grimes County, making it subject to the Texas Public Information Act.
A judge has not yet ruled on the case.
