Rancher Offers Elon Musk 100 Acres to Move Twitter’s Headquarters to Texas

Elon Musk's twitter account is seen on a smartphone in front of the Twitter logo, on April 15, 2022. Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters

An Austin rancher has offered to donate free land to Elon Musk for the use of a new Twitter headquarters in Texas, if he chooses to relocate the company from San Francisco to the Lone Star State, reported Austonia.

The board of Twitter accepted Musk’s deal to buy the social media platform for $44 billion on April 25, after weeks of media speculation.

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas put out a public invitation to the tech billionaire to move Twitter’s headquarters to the state, where three of Musk’s other companies are already located.

Jim Schwertner, president and CEO of Schwertner Farms, soon made his own private bid to Musk.

“Elon Musk, Move Twitter to Schwertner, TX. 38 Miles North of Austin in Williamson County, and we will give you 100 Acres for FREE,” Schwertner said on Twitter on April 26.

Schwertner owns 20,000 acres of farms and ranches on land just north of Georgetown, Texas.

“We think it’s a good idea, especially when you’ve got Samsung coming to Taylor,” said Schwertner to Austonia.

Samsung Electronics is building a $17 billion chipmaking campus in the suburb of Taylor.

“I mean, this area is exploding and we want to be part of this explosive growth,” he said.

Schwertner said that the move would be a “win-win” for everybody involved, claiming that a business like Twitter would bring plenty of jobs to Texas and a boon for the local economy.

The Texas rancher’s offer has the support of Abbott, who promptly posted a tweet in support on April 27.

“I will declare it a ‘Free Speech Zone,’” said Abbott, “Maybe we can rename it Twitter, Texas. Think about it, @elonmusk.”

Musk, who already has a business relationship with the Lone Star State, announced last year that he would move Tesla’s headquarters from California’s Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas, after complaining about the Golden State’s unfriendly business environment.

The tech entrepreneur is also building a manufacturing plant for his SpaceX operations in Austin and his Boring Company is headquartered there as well.

The billionaire had purchased more than 2,500 acres southeast of downtown Austin in the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction for his three companies.

Musk built a $1.1 billion factory on a small portion of the land, which is also Tesla’s new headquarters.

Other social media companies like Meta and TikTok also have their headquarters in Central Texas.

In an already deleted tweet, Musk had previously joked about turning Twitter’s Bay Area headquarters into a homeless shelter, which he claims is barely used since the pandemic placed employees at home.

“I just think with all the stuff he’s done, he evidently likes Texas, right or he wouldn’t have moved from California,” said Schwertner about Musk, adding he wants “to be part of his plan if he'll come visit with us.”

In a reiteration of his offer, Schwertner wrote a tweet to Musk on April 27 and told Austonia that his proposal is a “serious gesture to help the citizens around Williamson County.”

Musk has yet to respond to or publicly acknowledge the Texas rancher’s offer.