This was a big one, and knowing the state of shipbuilding in the United States, I could not believe the number when I saw it.

It looks like we're finally getting serious about our Next-Gen fleet. 

Saronic picks Brownsville, Texas, for $3 billion Port Alpha shipyard

Autonomous vessel maker Saronic is set to build Port Alpha, a shipyard the company describes as the most advanced in the world, at the Port of Brownsville, Texas.

The announcement builds on an eventful few weeks for the company’s Corsair drone boats.

On July 12, three Corsairs struck Iran’s Bandar Abbas naval base in what U.S. Central Command called the first combat use of unmanned surface vessels by American forces.

Weeks earlier, a Navy-operated Corsair helped rescue two soldiers after their Army AH-64 Apache went down near the Strait of Hormuz, a mission Central Command called another first of its kind by an unmanned surface vessel.

Founded in 2022, Saronic first unveiled plans for Port Alpha in February 2025 but stopped short of naming a site or a cost. Plans now include an initial 835-acre site in Cameron County, with room to grow to nearly 4,400 acres. It’s an investment the company puts at more than $3 billion. The site was chosen over competing sites in California and Virginia, among others.

This is what the company's Corsair boats are capable of.

— Military Data (@mildata) July 14, 2026

They're completely legit.

Now, that's serious money, and I didn't give much thought to California losing out on something that could have been so huge until I saw this Xweet from my friend, Captain John Konrad, who, besides being a Merchant Marine captain with a license rating for every vessel one can operate commercially, also is the CEO of gCaptain, which I believe is one of the largest maritime magazines in the world.

— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) July 19, 2026

What on earth was this?

Well, it turned out that California's arrogance played a huge part in it. If you can imagine that. And I imagine you can.

The first part of the puzzle is a mysterious 'utopian' city of the future project being pushed and financed by tech billionaires in Solano, California. This is the first I'd ever heard of 'California Forever.' What a stupid name.

In any event, the idea was that, as they've already spent boatloads of cash and nearly a decade buying up tens of thousands of acres of prime farmland for their creepy dream project, the state of California should get out of their way and expedite rules to make it all happen sooner rather than later,

Tech billionaires behind California Forever are pressuring Sacramento to slash environmental reviews and potentially sidestep county voter restrictions in a bid to force through their planned utopian city.

The billionaire-backed development group is lobbying Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers to fast-track approvals for a massive shipyard and manufacturing hub that it says would kick-start the long-stalled project and help lure a major defense contractor before it chooses Texas instead, according to CalMatters.

At the center of the push is a package of proposed legislative changes that would allow California Forever to rely on an 18-year-old environmental impact report for the shipyard, limit legal challenges to 270 days, and, if necessary, allow neighboring Suisun City to annex the land if local governments cannot move quickly enough.

...Since 2018, the group’s subsidiary Flannery Associates quietly purchased roughly 62,000 acres of farmland while refusing to identify its financial backers. Some farmers later alleged they were pressured into selling.

The mystery surrounding the project ended in 2023, when its investors were revealed to include several wealthy Silicon Valley venture capitalists, including the founders of LinkedIn and Netscape, led by former Goldman Sachs trader and real estate developer Jan Sramek.

Marc Andreessen, co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, also has investments in both California Forever and Saronic, the defense company considering California for its next factory.

California Forever had originally planned to ask Solano County voters to approve its East Solano Plan, which proposed re-zoning 17,500 acres of agricultural land for a city of about 400,000 residents.

...But the company withdrew the proposal in 2024 after facing strong grassroots opposition, unfavorable polling and a county review that identified major shortcomings in the plan.

Sramek later acknowledged the company likely moved too quickly and said the proposal would return to voters in 2026.

Sounds like something out of The Prisoner TV series, doesn't it?

Anyway, Saronic was scouting new areas for this manufacturing facility, plans for which kept expanding, and that naturally caught the attention of the tech billionaires who were looking for anchor industries for these hundreds of thousands of utopian city homes they wanted to build in Solano.

Saronic, the county, city, and state began having discussions, as it would have been greatly to Saronic's logistical advantage to be near the Pacific Ocean, as this is where those drones would be headed when completed.

One local state senator was the voice of caution for the billionaires and their build-a-city scheme and refused to meet with Saronic officials, which seems churlish.

...State Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, whose district includes the project, argued a development of this size deserves the full environmental review process, warning that converting thousands of acres of farmland into factories could have major consequences for surrounding communities and ecosystems.

As far as the deal falling through and Texas winning it, while Cabaldon is catching a lot of heat, when you dig into it, there's a lot more to it than his objections.

...A source familiar with the negotiations told The Post that Saronic executives visited Solano County in September 2025 and April 2026, but state Sen. Christopher Cabaldon and members of the Solano County Board of Supervisors declined to meet with the company.

The April meeting was held inside the Solano County Administration Building.

...Saronic nearly abandoned California after those visits but remained in the running only because of what one described as a “Herculean effort” by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration to convene regulators and keep negotiations alive.

Vacaville Mayor John Carli torched local and state officials in a statement to The Post.

“While Texas was securing a $3 billion investment, the Solano board was actively sabotaging our chances — publicly dismissing a generational project — or, as Supervisor [Mitch] Mashburn called it, a ‘nothingburger,'” Carli said. “Then, they refused to even meet with the Saronic team.”

Apparently, behind the scenes, the California Forever team was actively trying to tie the Saronic approval for the facility into their massive housing project.

California Forever’s bid to recruit a major industrial tenant for a planned waterfront shipbuilding facility in Solano County has slipped away, a significant blow to the ambitious but heavily scrutinized billionaire-backed plan to build an entire new city on thousands of acres of farmland. 

Defense startup Saronic Technologies, which designs and builds autonomous watercraft, has chosen Texas — where the company has been considering the Port of Brownsville — over Solano County for its $3.2 billion Port Alpha automated shipyard, according to multiple sources familiar with the negotiations. 

The announcement strips California Forever of the prominent prospective tenant it had presented as proof that its controversial development could become a cornerstone of the nation’s shipbuilding revival. The setback comes at a pivotal moment for the larger project to create a new city, though its supporters say the search for a major commercial tenant is far from over.  

And Cabaldon called BS on claims he torpedoed the deal.

...The announcement comes as Solano County has also faced other manufacturing job losses, including the planned closure of Valero's Benicia refinery and the shutdown of Anheuser-Busch's Fairfield brewery, costing more than 500 jobs.

Supporters of California Forever are also criticizing state Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, saying he was skeptical of the project and did not engage with Saronic leaders. Cabaldon's office disputed that characterization, saying California Forever tied the shipyard proposal to its broader housing development and ultimately cost Solano County the opportunity.

...In a statement to ABC7 Eyewitness News, Sen. Cabaldon said: "Solano County had real advantages to offer Saronic. They were the only realistic location on the West Coast for shipbuilding, a historic connection to that industry, a workforce ready to build and a Board of Supervisors and Legislative partners willing to lean in and negotiate a real deal. But California Forever held the shipyard proposal hostage by tying it to their unpopular housing development proposal. When push came to shove, California Forever chose their billionaire project over bringing this opportunity to Solano County."

What Saronic is bringing to the table when the plant gets up and running would be a major boost for any area that got it, and it would have been the validation California Forever needed to get the approval for their project. 

...Saronic estimates Port Alpha could create up to 10,000 direct jobs over the next decade, from welding and machining to robotics, software engineering and naval architecture. The company also projects $264.5 billion in economic impact for Texas and $160 billion for Cameron County.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who announced the project from Saronic’s Austin headquarters, said a fully built-out yard would deliver about $750 million a year in wages, a sum he called “game-changing for the population of Texas.”

The CA unions who were anticipating manna from defense heaven are crushed that, once again, CA intrigue and red tape have done them in. 

...“As California’s most vocal advocates for new industries, high-wage jobs, and homes people can afford our coalition is extremely frustrated that California lost this historic opportunity,” the project’s proponents said. “Shipbuilding is in California’s heritage, and California was the natural home for Port Alpha.”

Joshua Arce, executive director for the California Alliance of Jobs, which represents thousands of union construction workers across the state, told the Chronicle that “thousands of union construction jobs” that would have accompanied Saronic’s Port Alpha shipyard in California are headed to Texas instead because “state leaders failed to act with the urgency this project demanded.”

To be fair, why would any forward looking tech company want to build projects in CA knowing the states leadership, red tape, and Marxists voters are all working against the company trying to bring advanced technologies to market?

— ██████████ (@_PLVSVLTRA_) July 16, 2026

Perhaps a bit of their own reputations as well. Saronic says part of the reason they picked Brownsville, never alluding to the unpleasantness in Solano, was the workforce.

...In announcing its decision, Saronic said Brownsville was selected after a yearlong, nationwide search because of its workforce, infrastructure, logistics, land availability and room for future expansion.

The company added: "The state of Texas and city of Brownsville give us the foundation to turn vision into reality."

— John Otter (@otter401) July 16, 2026

...The son of one my best friends is on Gov Abbott's staff and was part of the TX process.  His words:The real pivot point in the negotiations was the union requirement (both constructing the shipyard and building the ships) attached to California Forever vs complete non-union in Texas

-California Forever was never a serious choice for Saronic and was only used as leverage to negotiate the the best deal in TX.  Saronic never really considered doing their shipyard in CA.  TX knew CA Forever was a bluff card.

-Port of Brownsville shipyard will be built with non-union construction labor at a much lower cost than a union shipyard at CA Forever

-Actual ship building at the Port of Brownsville will be done with non-union labor at a far lower cost whereas California Forever would have required a union ship builder workforce

At the end of the day there was a massive difference in construction and ship building costs between Port of Brownsville and CA Forever and it made TX the clear choice for Saronic

Had CA gotten the approvals in place timely it would not have changed Saronic's ultimate decision.  CA Forever is/was significantly non-competitive from a cost perspective and that drove the decision.

But it's not just CA unions, a triumphant Texas, and grumpy billionaires involved. Something has to be done about the West Coast.

From John Konrad, who laid it out beautifully - we must stop kowtowing to the Marxists.

...Republicans absolutely must stop saying “move to Texas” every time California or New York or Massachusetts does something that costs everyone tax dollars, time and security.

Yes, Saronic moving is a minor win for Texas. But it’s a major loss for the entire nation.

We have lost the entire Pacific coast from Seattle down to San Diego and all the way across to Hawaii. It blows my mind that most conservatives are willing to shrug this off.

To fight back, we should use federal authorities to keep California refineries open, stop far-left environmental laws that punish existing shipowners, and enforce constitutional rights like 2A. 

That’s the goal. But RIGHT NOW we absolutely and unequivocally MUST stop kowtowing to Marxists.

Maybe it will take time for the US Navy to get its ducks in a row and exert federal authority to take back vital infrastructure like the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Mare Island and Red Hill.

But the DoW can and must start issuing statements TODAY explaining what these Marxists are doing and why it’s hurting the entire nation’s security and checkbook.

Name and shame all of them and publish a book of every cost these commies are making us all pay.

As much as they don't like it and none of us want them, they are integral parts of the United States of America, and our national Security hinges on being able to defend all of us.

Time to take their medicine, and suck it up.

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