It was Litespeed that built his one, I contacted them and they confirmed this one was made in November 1996.
It has the same bullet style ends on the ends of the chainstays/seatstays, as my On one 456 ti mtb, that was also built by Litespeed, but about a dozen years later.
Who built the Merckx Ti frames, do you know? It was one of the US builders as I recall, but I don't remember which one.