SpaceX Plans $74 Billion in AI Campuses in Texas and Arizona

SpaceX said Thursday that it plans to invest more than $74 billion in two artificial intelligence supercomputing campuses, one at its Starbase site in Texas and one in Cochise County, Arizona. Reuters reported the figures, which split roughly $24 billion for Texas and about $50 billion for the Arizona site, east of Tucson. That account, as relayed through a reprint, rests on the snippet of the story reviewed here.

The sum is large, and the details behind it are still being worked out. The Arizona campus needs county approval, and the Texas project comes with local water and power commitments that remain unsettled.

One word deserves attention. The coverage describes SpaceX as planning or expecting to invest this money. None of it describes the money as spending already committed.

The Texas Build at Starbase

The Texas campus would sit on SpaceX-owned property near the Port of Brownsville in the Rio Grande Valley, according to Quartz. Converge Digest reported that the site covers about 444 acres that were disannexed from Brownsville and brought into Starbase. That detail appears only in Converge Digest.

The exact dollar figure is not settled in the coverage. Reuters and The Hill describe the Texas commitment as more than $24 billion, while Converge Digest puts it at up to $24 billion. SpaceX's own statement was not retrieved in the research for this story, so the difference is unresolved.

On jobs, Quartz, citing SpaceX, reported more than 3,000 construction jobs already tied to the project and more than 500 permanent positions once the campus is running. The job figures appear only in Quartz and Converge Digest, and both trace to SpaceX.

Water and Power

According to Quartz, citing SpaceX, the company has committed $220 million to water and sewer work in Brownsville and Cameron County, adding about 20 million gallons a day of capacity, and has already paid $40 million to the Brownsville Public Utilities Board. Those water figures also appear only in Quartz and Converge Digest.

Where the power comes from is less clear. Quartz, citing a Starbase public hearing notice, reported that SpaceX would build and operate a natural gas power station, with initial phases at about $24 billion. That figure comes from the notice as relayed by Quartz and has not been verified or reconciled with the campus total. Converge Digest described the plan as on-site generation kept off the public grid. According to Quartz, the power station proposal and the water and sewer work are still pending.

The Hill also reported that Gov. Greg Abbott has announced a pause on new data center construction pending a state audit. That claim appears in only one outlet in the reporting reviewed here and has not been independently confirmed.

Arizona's Bigger Piece, Still Awaiting a Yes

The Arizona campus is the larger of the two at roughly $50 billion. Reuters and Converge Digest reported it would bring about 5,500 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent ones.

The project needs approval from Cochise County, Reuters reported.

Converge Digest quoted a SpaceX statement saying, "We're advancing two extraordinary projects." The speaker is identified only as SpaceX, and the quote has not been checked against the company's primary statement, which was not retrieved.

Converge Digest also offered a note of caution, which it presents as its own analysis: investment totals like these cannot be reliably converted into a measure of actual computing capacity.

What Comes Next

The next markers are local ones. Cochise County has yet to decide on the Arizona campus, the pending Starbase power station proposal and the water and sewer work are still outstanding according to Quartz, and the SpaceX statement and the full Reuters and Quartz reports remain to be checked. If Abbott's reported pause is confirmed, its effect on the Texas project would also need to be established.