What is the secret project KBTX keeps talking about? They said "American Foundry, LLC". Sounds like a wafer fab like TSMC to me.
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Secret Project at Rellis
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I had heard it was related to manufacturing mini-nuclear reactors or something of that sort.
Not sure we would be getting a Fab because that likely requires a stable power source/Grid and uneventful weather. There was a solid reason they chose Phoenix as the only issue is unrelenting sun, which can be handled with property building.
That also being said, I feel like we do have quite the potential population for the required expertise and ability to employ folks. Samsung built a fab outside Austin - so precedent is there of moving forward regardless of the whole power grid and weather aspects.
Not sure we would be getting a Fab because that likely requires a stable power source/Grid and uneventful weather. There was a solid reason they chose Phoenix as the only issue is unrelenting sun, which can be handled with property building.
That also being said, I feel like we do have quite the potential population for the required expertise and ability to employ folks. Samsung built a fab outside Austin - so precedent is there of moving forward regardless of the whole power grid and weather aspects.
I think it is semiconductor related
Thanks for the replies. Poster above confirmed my suspicions. 
Having a wafer fab in CS would be great. Also, stable power is a requirement, but the weather isn't really a factor. I hope TI is involved.
Having a wafer fab in CS would be great. Also, stable power is a requirement, but the weather isn't really a factor. I hope TI is involved.
..
Bonfire97 said:
Thanks for the replies. Poster above confirmed my suspicions.
Having a wafer fab in CS would be great. Also, stable power is a requirement, but the weather isn't really a factor. I hope TI is involved.
It won't be in CS.
Since it will be located on the Rellis campus, there won't be any real estate taxes collected on the land but there will be BPP taxes collected. Are private structures built on public land taxed at the current property tax rate?
User name checks out.
Bryanisbest said:Bonfire97 said:
Thanks for the replies. Poster above confirmed my suspicions.
Having a wafer fab in CS would be great. Also, stable power is a requirement, but the weather isn't really a factor. I hope TI is involved.
It won't be in CS.
We will have to call it the BCS super regional wafer manufacturing facility sponsored by Blue Bell
Abbotts in S Korea - probably related.
Filing records reveal tech company behind major $10 billion RELLIS Campus investment
https://www.kbtx.com/2024/07/11/filing-records-reveal-tech-company-behind-major-10-billion-rellis-campus-investment/
https://www.kbtx.com/2024/07/11/filing-records-reveal-tech-company-behind-major-10-billion-rellis-campus-investment/
Wow this is a huge freaking deal. Congrats to sharp and everyone else involved. The ripple effects of this is going to be insane. This could have a similar economic impact that DELL had on the Austin area.
Joseph George '92
Let's see it happen before we go handing out championship trophies.
maroon barchetta said:
Let's see it happen before we go handing out championship trophies.
No, it's a done deal. Nuclear powered chip manufacturing plant running at full speed in a couple years, adding billions to Bryan pockets. /TexAgs posters
Do they need a semi-retired tech sales manager that works Tuesdays?
We need the details. A 10 BILLION project would more than double the existing value of all taxable properties in Bryan. This is a BIG deal and will have generational impacts. It's important that the city and county come forward with more details on tax breaks, possible positive and negative impacts to local community. One would assume that this is being launched/granted as part of the CHIPS act or "Advanced Nuclear Research Infrastructure Enhancement Subprogram". Give us the details. It's our community and our tax dollars.
A start-up with a San Fran post office box is investing $10B?
After reading more it seems there is a lot more to do and have to beat 14 other sites before we get this in the barn.
I've always wanted to be a fly on the wall for things like this. Can't imagine all the data that gets funneled into these decisions. I would think we should be seeing where the other sites are soon.
I've always wanted to be a fly on the wall for things like this. Can't imagine all the data that gets funneled into these decisions. I would think we should be seeing where the other sites are soon.
Joseph George '92
Joseph in Cypress said:
After reading more it seems there is a lot more to do and have to beat 14 other sites before we get this in the barn.
I've always wanted to be a fly on the wall for things like this. Can't imagine all the data that gets funneled into these decisions. I would think we should be seeing where the other sites are soon.
Hopefully negative comments on local discussion boards won't run them off.
If there is any truth to this article in The Eagle, this could end embarrassingly...?
Summary for us that don't have sub to the paper?
The article suggests that the CEO possibly behind this effort has a long history of failed startups. Maybe not kosher to paste (didn't realize it was paywalled?), but here you go:
Defunct tech startup CEO possibly behind Bryan semiconductor facility
Kyle McClenagan Jul 11, 2024
The Texas A&M RELLIS campus in Bryan is the potential home to a semiconductor facility, according to documents filed with the Texas Comptroller's Office. The documents confirm a recent tax abatement granted by the city and Brazos County was for a semiconductor facility to be built on a 288-acre section of land at the RELLIS campus.
James Proud, the then-CEO of a tech startup valued at $250 million, stands confidently alongside 28-time Olympic-gold-medal-winner Michael Phelps, pop star Jason Derulo and singer-songwriter Halsey in the January 2017 cover photo of Forbes Magazine's 30 Under 30.
Less than six months after making the magazine's prestigious cover, Proud would announce the closure of his multimillion-dollar startup, following its failed sale. Now, over seven years later, Proud appears to be the CEO of a new startup that hopes to build a $10 billion semiconductor facility at Texas A&M University's RELLIS campus.
In 2011, Proud, who is originally from London and is at least 32 years old, became one of the first 25 people to be awarded a Thiel Fellowship a scholarship program started by Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal, which gives teenage entrepreneurs $100,000 on the condition they skip college.
Before receiving the fellowship, Proud created a ticket-selling website called GigLocator at age 17. He ultimately sold the site to a concert promoter for an alleged six figures, according to Forbes. GigLocator never appears to have taken off after being sold and, according to Internet Archive, the U.S. website went down sometime in 2014.
In July 2014, Proud began his next venture, a crowdfunded company called Hello that hoped to produce a sleep health tracker. The project would ultimately collect over $2 million from nearly 20,000 individual backers on Kickstarter. Hello would go on to raise an additional $40 million in venture capital funding and release its first product called 'Sense' in February 2015, according to the tech publication Wired. 'Sense' was a $149 sleep tracker comprised of an orb, pillow clip and smartphone app.
Despite successfully bringing the product to market, reviews were mixed at best with The New York Times giving it the lukewarm assessment of "good enough, for what it is" and The Verge calling it "dysfunctional" and "a teachable example of Silicon Valley vacuousness."
The company would only stay afloat for about two years until on June 12, 2017, Proud announced that Hello would be shutting down. The closure of the company came as Axios reported that a planned sale to Fitbit failed.
In the closure announcement, Proud wrote that it was an honor to have led the company.
"It's with a heavy heart that I share with you the news that Hello will soon be shutting down," he said in the announcement post. "The past few months have been incredibly tough, especially on the team of Hello. For that, I'm incredibly sorry."
In 2019, Proud founded his second startup, Config, which raised over $5 million. According to tech publication Tech Crunch, Config is a software that allegedly creates a more streamlined process for designing hardware via computer-aided design (CAD). One of the customers that Config claimed to work with is fellow tech startup Humane. In early 2024, Humane released the Humane AI Pin a subscription-based AI pin designed to replace smartphones that was met with mostly unfavorable reviews.
Config's X account has not made a post since June 6, 2023, but its website is still active and Proud's LinkedIn account lists it as his current place of employment. Efforts to reach Proud via phone and email were not successful.
While Config seems to still be open, it recently appears that Proud has begun pursuing his next big project, bringing semiconductors to the Brazos Valley.
On Tuesday, the Brazos County Commissioners Court and the city of Bryan both approved tax abatement agreements with America's Foundry Bryan, LLC. County Judge Duane Peters, city councilors and Bryan Mayor Bobby Gutierrez were, and continue to be, under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) regarding the possible project's details.
On Wednesday, the Austin Business Journal published documents from the Texas Comptroller's Office which listed Proud as CEO of Substrate Inc, the parent company of America's Foundry Bryan, LLC. The documents also confirmed that the tax abatement was for a semiconductor facility to possibly be built on a 288-acre section of land at the RELLIS campus.
An economic impact analysis report of the proposed project shows a total capital investment of over $108 billion over the next 40 years. The project also hopes to employ 2,000 workers by 2035.
America's Foundry Bryan, LLC also has filed for an unknown amount of state and federal funds from the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund, the Texas Enterprise Fund, the Texas Enterprise Zone Project Designation, the Texas Skills Development Fund, and the United States CHIPS Incentive Program.
The Eagle reached out to Substrate Inc. for further details on the project but had not heard back at the time of publication. Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2024 and is expected to finish in 2028.
Defunct tech startup CEO possibly behind Bryan semiconductor facility
Kyle McClenagan Jul 11, 2024
The Texas A&M RELLIS campus in Bryan is the potential home to a semiconductor facility, according to documents filed with the Texas Comptroller's Office. The documents confirm a recent tax abatement granted by the city and Brazos County was for a semiconductor facility to be built on a 288-acre section of land at the RELLIS campus.
James Proud, the then-CEO of a tech startup valued at $250 million, stands confidently alongside 28-time Olympic-gold-medal-winner Michael Phelps, pop star Jason Derulo and singer-songwriter Halsey in the January 2017 cover photo of Forbes Magazine's 30 Under 30.
Less than six months after making the magazine's prestigious cover, Proud would announce the closure of his multimillion-dollar startup, following its failed sale. Now, over seven years later, Proud appears to be the CEO of a new startup that hopes to build a $10 billion semiconductor facility at Texas A&M University's RELLIS campus.
In 2011, Proud, who is originally from London and is at least 32 years old, became one of the first 25 people to be awarded a Thiel Fellowship a scholarship program started by Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal, which gives teenage entrepreneurs $100,000 on the condition they skip college.
Before receiving the fellowship, Proud created a ticket-selling website called GigLocator at age 17. He ultimately sold the site to a concert promoter for an alleged six figures, according to Forbes. GigLocator never appears to have taken off after being sold and, according to Internet Archive, the U.S. website went down sometime in 2014.
In July 2014, Proud began his next venture, a crowdfunded company called Hello that hoped to produce a sleep health tracker. The project would ultimately collect over $2 million from nearly 20,000 individual backers on Kickstarter. Hello would go on to raise an additional $40 million in venture capital funding and release its first product called 'Sense' in February 2015, according to the tech publication Wired. 'Sense' was a $149 sleep tracker comprised of an orb, pillow clip and smartphone app.
Despite successfully bringing the product to market, reviews were mixed at best with The New York Times giving it the lukewarm assessment of "good enough, for what it is" and The Verge calling it "dysfunctional" and "a teachable example of Silicon Valley vacuousness."
The company would only stay afloat for about two years until on June 12, 2017, Proud announced that Hello would be shutting down. The closure of the company came as Axios reported that a planned sale to Fitbit failed.
In the closure announcement, Proud wrote that it was an honor to have led the company.
"It's with a heavy heart that I share with you the news that Hello will soon be shutting down," he said in the announcement post. "The past few months have been incredibly tough, especially on the team of Hello. For that, I'm incredibly sorry."
In 2019, Proud founded his second startup, Config, which raised over $5 million. According to tech publication Tech Crunch, Config is a software that allegedly creates a more streamlined process for designing hardware via computer-aided design (CAD). One of the customers that Config claimed to work with is fellow tech startup Humane. In early 2024, Humane released the Humane AI Pin a subscription-based AI pin designed to replace smartphones that was met with mostly unfavorable reviews.
Config's X account has not made a post since June 6, 2023, but its website is still active and Proud's LinkedIn account lists it as his current place of employment. Efforts to reach Proud via phone and email were not successful.
While Config seems to still be open, it recently appears that Proud has begun pursuing his next big project, bringing semiconductors to the Brazos Valley.
On Tuesday, the Brazos County Commissioners Court and the city of Bryan both approved tax abatement agreements with America's Foundry Bryan, LLC. County Judge Duane Peters, city councilors and Bryan Mayor Bobby Gutierrez were, and continue to be, under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) regarding the possible project's details.
On Wednesday, the Austin Business Journal published documents from the Texas Comptroller's Office which listed Proud as CEO of Substrate Inc, the parent company of America's Foundry Bryan, LLC. The documents also confirmed that the tax abatement was for a semiconductor facility to possibly be built on a 288-acre section of land at the RELLIS campus.
An economic impact analysis report of the proposed project shows a total capital investment of over $108 billion over the next 40 years. The project also hopes to employ 2,000 workers by 2035.
America's Foundry Bryan, LLC also has filed for an unknown amount of state and federal funds from the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund, the Texas Enterprise Fund, the Texas Enterprise Zone Project Designation, the Texas Skills Development Fund, and the United States CHIPS Incentive Program.
The Eagle reached out to Substrate Inc. for further details on the project but had not heard back at the time of publication. Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2024 and is expected to finish in 2028.
Makes me think of Elizabeth Holmes, who, by an odd coincidence now resides in Bryan.
maroon barchetta said:
Makes me think of Elizabeth Holmes, who, by an odd coincidence now resides in Bryan.
Funny enough, I thought the exact same thing. If it sounds too good to be true……By the time this is over it'll be us taxpayers footing the bill for this fella's next golden parachute.
2028? They might be finished before 2818 is.instapt said:
The Eagle reached out to Substrate Inc. for further details on the project but had not heard back at the time of publication. Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2024 and is expected to finish in 2028.
Thanks
To be fair, Proud is only 32 so he doesn't have a long history of anything. Also, Venture Capital (VC) startups are notoriously risky and most VC investors limit their risk by spreading out their $s in hopes of just one VC jackpot. Think roulette.instapt said:
The article suggests that the CEO possibly behind this effort has a long history of failed startups. Maybe not kosher to paste (didn't realize it was paywalled?), but here you go:
James Proud (America's Foundry CEO) is either a cutout - meaning the business plan is to secure some measure of 'accreditation" and then flip the project ... or Proud is the CEO of a VC group trying to secure enough federal, state, and private equity funding to actually build the plant. And of course, there's the possible hybrid of any of all of the above.
After last week's Comptroller's Office filing, the abatement agreements, and the BOR agreement ... we should hear more soon.