SpaceX plans more than $74 billion for AI supercomputing campuses in Texas and Arizona

SpaceX plans to invest more than $74 billion in two AI supercomputing campuses, one at Starbase in Texas and one in Cochise County, Arizona, the company announced on 12 November, Quartz reports.

The Arizona campus would cost about $50 billion. SpaceX expects roughly 5,500 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs there, and says it is working with local electric cooperatives on existing renewable power. It says the project could lower electricity bills for cooperative members by up to 20% and that the site will use dry cooling, with no planned industrial groundwater use. The Arizona site was first reported on 6 November.

The $24 billion Texas campus sits on a 444-acre tract of company land near the Port of Brownsville. SpaceX says it will train frontier AI systems and generate its own electricity instead of drawing from the public grid. A city public notice shows a gas-fired power plant on the site, DCD reports, and the Starbase City Commission will consider a property tax abatement on 9 December. SpaceX has also committed $220 million to expand water and sewage systems in Brownsville and Cameron County.

Texas governor-elect Gina Hinojosa campaigned on a statewide moratorium on data centers, though Republicans hold the majority in the state legislature, Quartz notes.