SpaceX Plans a $24 Billion AI Supercomputer in Texas With Its Own Gas Power Plant

SpaceX is planning a $24 billion supercomputing facility at Starbase, the Cameron County city built around its rocket factory and launch site. The project pairs a data center with a natural gas power plant that the company would build, own and operate itself, according to a city notice. The plant would reportedly run on 35 turbines and generate 748 megawatts, a big departure from most AI data centers, which draw from the local grid. The notice does not explain why SpaceX wants its own plant.

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SpaceX went public in June and holds 18,712 bitcoin, worth roughly $1.39 billion. That makes the project about 17 times the value of its bitcoin stack. Its AI push is fairly new, since Elon Musk merged xAI into the company in February in a stock swap that valued the combined firm near $1.25 trillion. The move also echoes Anthropic’s recent deal for 1.7 gigawatts of gas generators worth $3.4 billion, and one commodity index described the AI boom as turning into a gas story.

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Political Hurdles for SpaceX

The city commission will hold a public hearing on December 9 over a requested property tax abatement tied to the Cameron County Enterprise Zone. Politics could complicate things. Democrat Gina Hinojosa won the governor’s race on November 3 after campaigning against AI data centers, and outgoing Governor Greg Abbott already paused new grid connections in August until a statewide audit is finished. That audit also covers on-site power generation, so it remains unclear whether SpaceX’s own plant helps it avoid the hurdle.