SpaceX outlines $74 billion in Arizona and Texas data center plans

SpaceX said it plans to invest $74 billion across the two projects.[1] In Texas, the company plans a $24 billion campus on 444 acres of company-owned land near its Starbase rocket site.[1] In Cochise County, Arizona, it plans a $50 billion campus.[1] SpaceX says the Arizona project would include nine supercomputing buildings plus support buildings, and the site would have up to six gigawatts of power.[2] The company lists its battery energy storage system at up to 24 gigawatts / hours.[2]

SpaceX says the computing capacity will train its superintelligence models and support science and engineering advances.[2] The company also says the Arizona campus will support medical research, emergency response, manufacturing and national security.[2] It describes the site as having no industrial water consumption and using dry cooling without evaporative spray.[2] SpaceX says the computers will be operated by the applicant for its own work, with no retail, walk-in or public use.[2] These are company descriptions of the proposed campus, not evidence that the projects are already operating.

SpaceX expects the Arizona project to create 5,500 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs.[1] Those figures are estimates tied to a project that still requires county approval.[1] It was not immediately clear whether the Arizona campus would need further regulatory approvals.[1] The approval status is therefore a material planning consideration: readers should distinguish the company's stated project scope and employment estimates from confirmed construction or hiring. SpaceX's plans place the campuses among some of the largest data center projects in the United States.[1]

SpaceX has grown a business leasing computing power to other AI companies, including Anthropic and Google.[1] Anthropic committed to paying up to $120.5 billion through 2029, while Google is paying SpaceX $920 million per month for computing power.[1] SpaceX reported in October that its AI business accounted for more than half of its revenue.[1] The company also said capital expenditures reached $19.6 billion in the third quarter, nearly three times the prior-year level.[1] The New York Times reported that Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and other technology companies have spent tens of billions on data center campuses.[1]