Rare earth magnet production company MP Materials Corp. has selected a site north of Fort Worth to build a second manufacturing plant where it plans to create more than 1,000 jobs.
Las Vegas-based MP Materials (NYSE: MP) announced Feb. 26 it will build a 120-acre rare earth manufacturing campus on property owned by Ross Perot Jr.-led Hillwood near Harmonson Road and FM 156 in Northlake, about 27 miles north of Fort Worth in Denton County. Engineering and equipment procurement is underway and begin testing operations in 2028.
The new campus, called “10X,” is a more than $1.25 billion investment expected to create more than 1,500 jobs. The investment by MP Materials follows a multibillion-dollar, public-private partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense, rebranded last year by the Trump administration as the Department of War. The department plans to invest than $700 million to purchase preferred stock and warrants, which would make it the company’s largest shareholder. The company runs the only functioning rare earth mining and processing site in the country at Mountain Pass in California.
The effort is part of the Trump administration’s effort to make the U.S. more competitive with China for rare earth minerals and less dependent on imports.
Less than 10 miles away from the new campus, MP Materials makes neodymium-iron-boron magnets that are used in everything from electric vehicles to everyday electronics at a 250,000-square-foot plant at Hillwood’s AllianceTexas development. As of 2025, MP Materials employed more than 160 people in Fort Worth including scientists, engineers and production technicians and operators.
With the second campus MP Materials intends to expand production to 10,000 metric tons of magnets per year. Fort Worth’s plant, called Independence, can produce 1,000 metric tons of magnets. MP Materials also recently pledged to invest in production capabilities to accommodate a new $500 million partnership with iPhone maker Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL).
Rare earth magnets are the strongest known magnets made from alloys such as neodymium or samarium-cobalt and are crucial for technologies ranging from phones and hard drives to defense technology such as guided missiles. As it stands now, China is the world’s largest producer of rare earth magnets, producing 92% of the world’s supply, according to a 2022 U.S. Department of Energy report.
James Litinsky, founder, chairman and CEO of MP Materials, said the new campus will help the company scale up and meet the demand of new partners. He previously told DBJ last year that the company wants to focus on executing on its deals. He estimated work will ramp up for General Motors this year and for Apple in 2027.
“10X is about building industrial strength at a scale the United States has not seen in generations, and the exceptional talent and infrastructure in North Texas make it possible,” Litinsky said in a statement. “We are advancing key objectives under our public-private partnership with the Department of War and accelerating America’s rare earth and magnet independence with an uncompromising focus on speed, execution and delivery.”
MP Materials received millions of incentives from local, regional and state governments in Texas as the company conducted a national site selection process led by Dallas-based real estate company CBRE. Denton County approved a 10-year tax break would cover 50% of real and personal property taxes up to $9.3 million in January. Northlake also approved incentives for the company in January. The company also won more than $66 million in grants from the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund.
The plant represents yet another win for Ross Perot Jr.’s AllianceTexas development north of Fort Worth. In 2025, AllianceTexas saw the largest amount of economic impact in five years, amounting to $12.9 billion last year, according to a recent annual report from Insight Research Corp and commissioned by Hillwood. That brings the total amount of economic impact to $142.9 billion in economic impact since 1990.
“AllianceTexas continues to attract advanced manufacturing that creates jobs, diversifies our economy, and strengthens America’s supply chain,” Perot said in a statement. “MP Materials has been a strong partner, and this competitive project demonstrates how city, county, and state leaders work together to secure significant new investment in North Texas.”