Texas Lands $3.2 Billion Shipyard Promising 10,000 New Jobs

Little Elm, Texas —

Governor Greg Abbott on Thursday announced that Saronic Technologies will build a next-generation shipyard called Port Alpha at the Port of Brownsville, a project state leaders are calling the largest shipyard in the country for the manufacture of autonomous and autonomy-capable vessels.

The development represents a capital investment of about $3.25 billion and is expected to create 10,000 new jobs, with roughly $750 million in annual payroll for Texans. The state extended an $80 million Texas Enterprise Fund grant toward the project, which is also qualified under the Texas Jobs, Energy, Technology, and Innovation program. Saronic, founded in Austin in 2022, builds autonomous maritime systems for defense and commercial fleets.

> “Today marks history with the announcement of the most advanced shipyard in the entire world,” said Governor Abbott. “When this shipyard gets fully built out, there will be about 10,000 employees. Saronic is going to be providing about $750 million in annual paychecks to Texans. That’s game-changing for the population of Texas.”

Abbott framed the investment as part of Texas’s emergence as a center of American shipbuilding and maritime manufacturing, pointing to Saronic in Brownsville and Davie Defense in Galveston. Saronic says it will work with the state, Cameron County, regional technical colleges and state university systems to stand up workforce training and apprenticeship programs aimed at building a maritime manufacturing hub in South Texas.

Little Elm is a Denton County city on the shore of Lewisville Lake in the northern metroplex.

Sources

https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-issues-executive-order-cracking-down-on-birth-tourism-schemes