(The Center Square) – More companies are expanding operations in Texas and receiving millions of taxpayer dollars to do it. The latest are CesiumAstro outside of Austin and Loloi Inc. outside of Dallas.
CesiumAstro announced it secured an historic $200 million financing package from the Export-Import Bank of the United States in partnership with J.P. Morgan to support its Texas expansion.
It is “the largest financing ever completed under EXIM’s “Make More in America” (MMIA) Initiative and one of the most significant government-backed investments in U.S. space manufacturing to date,” the company said. “This unprecedented investment will enable CesiumAstro to acquire a 270,000-square-foot facility in Texas for full-rate, domestic manufacturing at scale.”
CesiumAstro, a global leader in space and defense communications systems and satellites, provides connectivity solutions for the aviation, aerospace and defense industries. It delivers end-to-end solutions for satellites, high-performance communications payloads, and advanced computing systems. It claims to be investing more than $500 million in Texas and creating more than 500 new jobs in the next five years.
“Our expansion in Texas marks a transformative step for CesiumAstro as we advance cutting-edge space and defense technologies in the United States,” CesiumAstro founder and CEO Shey Sabripour said in a statement. “Texas is at the forefront of the new space economy, combining vision, top-tier talent, and powerful public-private partnerships. This is a project that could only be realized in Texas and will play a critical role in securing America’s future.
“We’re proud to partner with Governor Greg Abbott, the Texas Economic Development & Tourism Office, and the Texas Space Commission, whose support fuels our growth, strengthens America’s domestic capabilities, and helps us build next-generation systems that will define the future of aerospace and our national security,” said Sabripour, who previously worked at Lockheed Martin Space Systems for 24 years. “As a non-traditional defense contractor, we’re scaling domestic production at unprecedented speed, creating high-quality American jobs and proving that commercial innovation can deliver at national scale.”
Another company is also expanding operations in Texas, Loloi, Inc., a textile brand leader. It received a $2.45 million Texas Enterprise Fund grant and was offered a $45,000 Veteran Created Job Bonus as an incentive to build a more than one million square foot distribution facility in Ennis. The company says it’s making a $20 million capital investment in the project as part of a multi-phase distribution headquarters development. It also says the new project will create more than 380 new jobs.
Headquartered in Dallas since its founding more than 20 years ago, Loloi is a family-owned wholesale producer that provides business to business services in the home furnishing industry. In 2023, Loloi sold approximately 2.3 million rugs; it sells roughly 6,000 units a day, with prices ranging between $250 and $25,000, according to Entrepreneur.
“Texas has been our home since we started Loloi more than 20 years ago, and the state continues to provide opportunities to grow. This new facility in Ennis will allow us to add more jobs and create a world-class facility that we are proud of,” Loloi founder and president Amir Loloi said. Loloi, an Iranian immigrant, arrived in the U.S. at age 16 in 1976, two years before the Iranian Revolution. He says being involved in his local community was an important goal early on in his personal and professional life that continues today.
Loloi’s expansion in north Texas is an outworking of hard work, supportive state policies and a strong economy, Abbott said in a statement. “Texas is where the crossroads of hard work and opportunity lead to success,” he said.
