It's actually common practice in many parts of the country. The practice is called Economic Development. Rarely used for residential purposes, but does finance commercial development and promote hiring. The funding typically comes from the calculated/expected incremental tax revenue to the area (State, Local, etc). Newark, CA in the Bay Area did this for a while (may still?).

I'd be curious the inner workings surrounding the development of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starbase in Boca Chica, TX and what the backstory was around that.

Kind of a different use case with needing distance and dangerous stuff being deployed but still probably a worthy bit of development history and municipal dynamics to be shared there.

Ok but why spend that money at all? Companies are happy to create jobs and hire people in existing cities. And we can build housing at the cost of 0 tax dollars, for all those people, by easing zoning. It'll also cost a lot less to upgrade infrastructure for higher density that to build it wholecloth for new communities.