City and Brazos County officials approved tax breaks worth billions of dollars for the project this week but kept the identity of the company behind it secret and refused to even reveal what would be built on the undeveloped site owned by the Texas A&M University System.

Filings with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, first obtained by the Austin Business Journal, revealed the project owner is Americas’ Foundry Bryan LLC, with a parent company called Substrate Inc., headquartered in San Francisco.

An economic impact analysis report shows the total capital investment for the project would exceed $108 billion across the next 40 years.

The project has received the greenlight from A&M’s board of regents and received approval for a lucrative tax abatement agreement from both the Brazos County Commissioners Court and the Bryan City Council.

Local leaders with knowledge of the project are all under nondisclosure agreements regarding the project’s details and have been vague with answers about what the project would entail.

A Form AP-243 that America’s Foundry Bryan LLC filed with the comptroller’s office shows the project is called Project One Factory. Construction is slated to start late this year and be completed in 2028. Operations are expected to start in 2030, which is the first year of the incentive period that runs through 2039.

The project includes a 3-million-square-foot advanced semiconductor manufacturing facility that features administrative buildings, central utilities buildings and infrastructure, a machine shop, receiving and warehousing facilities, and roads.

Along with tax abatements from Brazos County and the city of Bryan, America’s Foundry Bryan LLC also has filed for unknown amounts 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 Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors Incentive Program.

The project would be located on an undeveloped 288-acre parcel on the A&M System’s Respect, Excellence, Leadership, Loyalty, Integrity and Service Campus. The Bryan City Council designated the site last month as a reinvestment zone to allow for property tax breaks. Bryan city staff said the purpose of the designation was to attract a significant economic development project with the A&M System.

The tax abatement will be 80% for the first five years, dropping to 50% for the remaining five. The guaranteed value of the tax abatement begins at $100 million and increases to $10 billion by year seven. According to the agreement, the facility also will create an estimated 1,800 jobs by year 10.

A&M System Chancellor John Sharp said Tuesday that the project has the potential to double the city of Bryan’s taxable income. Bryan city staff said the Brazos Central Appraisal District’s current 2024 estimate of net taxable value for the city to be certified on or before July 25 is a little more than $9.9 billion.

America’s Foundry Bryan LLC’s parent company, Substrate Inc., a startup company headquartered in San Francisco, engaged in a multi-state site selection process for its initial semiconductor manufacturing facility. The company does not have another business presence in Texas.

At the start of the company’s site selection process, 12 states offered specific incentives for semiconductor manufacturing. The company received a report last year on six states — Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Texas and Utah — and later added New York to the search. The company later narrowed its search to Texas, Oregon and New York.

An economic impact analysis covers a 41-year period, starting with the six-year construction phase, the 10-year incentive period, and an additional 25 years through 2064. The report shows tax revenues during the construction period are more than $463 million for the state of Texas, more than $46 million for the city of Bryan, and more than $15 million for Brazos County.

Sharp credited multiple people for their work on the project during comments to the Bryan City Council on Tuesday. He said David Staack, who has served as interim director of the A&M Semiconductor Institute, has taken over the project. Sharp said Susan Davenport, president and CEO of the Brazos Valley Economic Development Corp., “is an absolute wizard.”

Both Davenport and Staack joined Sharp at commissioners court and city council meetings Tuesday. Sharp also said Bryan Mayor Bobby Gutierrez has become the “best friend” of the CEO of this possible operation. Davenport and Gutierrez were part of a delegation of local leaders on a Brazos Valley Economic Development Corp.-sponsored trip to Japan last month to discuss possible international business opportunities.