The defense technology industry's newest billion-dollar startup is choosing where to build its next factory, and North Texas has formally entered the bidding.
The Fort Worth City Council approved an economic development agreement Tuesday night offering Mach Industries up to $4.5 million in tax breaks and grants over 10 years, the Fort Worth Report reported. The company, which makes unmanned aircraft, long-range munitions and alternative propulsion systems, is weighing a 310,036-square-foot building in the AllianceTexas development against sites elsewhere in Texas and across the nation.
What is on offer, and what is required
The package is performance-based. Mach Industries would commit to a minimum capital investment of $74 million, and to collect the full incentive it must employ 1,000 workers at a minimum average annual salary of $67,470. Falling below 600 jobs means no incentive, and if more than half the positions pay under $60,000 at any point, the company gets nothing.
Those terms matter regionally, because they set a visible benchmark for what a metro-area city will pay per job, and what it demands in return.
Why the region wants this category
Aerospace and defense manufacturing has become one of North Texas's most actively courted industries. Gov. Greg Abbott designated Fort Worth the aviation and defense capital of Texas last year, and the region counts more than 600 aerospace and defense companies, among them Bell and Lockheed Martin.
Mach Industries is a newer kind of entrant. Founded in 2023 by Ethan Thornton, then 19, who grew up in Boerne and left MIT to start it, the Huntington Beach company raised $300 million in Series C funding earlier this year at a $1.8 billion valuation.
