Rockdale sits inside one of the largest and fastest-growing industrial economies in the world, and that growth is now reaching Rockdale.
- $2.9 trillionTexas economy in 2025, the 8th largest in the world
- 80%Of Texas GDP produced in the Texas Triangle
- $93.9 billionEconomy of Milam County and its seven neighboring counties
The cluster
Major Projects Nearby
Some of the largest manufacturing investments in the country are going up around Rockdale, and one of them is in Rockdale itself.
T1 Energy G2_Austin
A solar cell plant at The Switch, on the former Alcoa property.
Latest: The plant topped out in summer 2026, and production is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2027.
Samsung Austin Semiconductor
Samsung’s Taylor chip plant is expected to begin operations in 2026.
Latest: Samsung plans to start construction on a second Taylor fab by the end of 2026, targeting production in 2030.
Terafab
A semiconductor plant planned by SpaceX and Tesla near College Station, with limited operations expected by the end of 2027.
Latest: Groundbreaking was in August 2026, and site work is underway.
Blue Origin
Blue Origin’s Constellation Park in Hutto adds aerospace manufacturing to the US 79 corridor.
Tesla Gigafactory Texas
Tesla’s Austin plant builds the Model Y and Cybertruck and anchors a growing network of suppliers.
Near the cluster, without metro costs
Suppliers want to be close to these plants, but not to pay metro prices. In Rockdale, average wages run 32% below the U.S. average, new homes cost 42% less than the Austin metro median, and 900,000 workers live within a 55-minute drive.
The region
A Regional Economy Bigger Than Seven States
Together, Milam County and the seven counties that border it produced $93.9 billion in GDP in 2024 and are home to 1.51 million people. That’s an economy slightly larger than the Omaha metro area, the 50th-largest metro in the U.S., and more people than live in 10 states.
Larger economy than Vermont, Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Rhode Island.
See the county figures
| County | GDP, 2024 | Population, 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Williamson | $44.6B | 752,827 |
| Bell | $26.1B | 402,248 |
| Brazos | $15.7B | 249,088 |
| Robertson | $3.3B | 17,839 |
| Lee | $1.4B | 18,729 |
| Burleson | $1.3B | 20,549 |
| Milam | $1.0B | 26,258 |
| Falls | $0.7B | 17,869 |
| Total | $93.9B | 1,505,407 |
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, GDP by county (2024) and by state (2025); U.S. Census Bureau population estimates (July 1, 2025).
Rockdale
Growth Is Reaching Rockdale
The Switch at Sandow Lakes
A 3,300-acre advanced manufacturing and logistics campus, the first phase of the 28,880-acre Sandow Lakes master-planned community. It plans an on-site rail terminal connecting to Union Pacific, and T1 Energy is its first tenant.
A forecast for the US 79 corridor
The Perryman Group projects that if the campus at the former Alcoa site develops as planned, it could generate $24.3 billion a year in gross product, and Rockdale could gain about 42,000 residents.
See where your project fits in the Central Texas economy.
Contact Us