The newest addition to the S&P 500 may be a relic of the Wild West, but its skyrocketing valuation is a byproduct of the AI boom. Founded in 1888, the Texas Pacific Land Corporation is a company that has just 100 employees but a market capitalization of more than $35 billion. For comparison, American Airlines, based in nearby Fort Worth, employs over 100,000 people and is worth roughly $10 billion.
Texas Pacific Land Corporation, or TPL, began as a land trust but found itself sitting on “black gold” soon after oil was discovered in West Texas during the early 1900s. Recently, the company has begun exploring other ways to make money from its 873,000 acres, an area larger than Yosemite National Park. Betting that the region’s dirt-cheap natural gas will be a draw for America’s tech giants, TPL is luring renewable power projects, Bitcoin mines, and utility-scale battery production.
