SpaceX Plans Over $74B for Arizona and Texas Data Centers

SpaceX said on Nov. 12 that it plans to invest more than $74 billion in two AI supercomputing data center campuses: roughly $50 billion in Cochise County, Arizona, and more than $24 billion at its Starbase site in Texas, according to Reuters.

Reuters reported the figures from a SpaceX statement. The Arizona campus still needs approval from Cochise County and would create about 5,500 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs. The Starbase facility would generate its own electricity rather than draw from the public grid, and SpaceX said the Texas project has generated more than 3,000 construction jobs and would support more than 500 permanent jobs once operating. The Next Web, citing Bloomberg, said SpaceX published the plan on its website.

The $74 billion is a sum of two separate projects that Voltgrid has followed since they surfaced. The Arizona plan first appeared as a 6 GW Cochise County application, and as Voltgrid reported on Nov. 9, SpaceX had acknowledged at a Nov. 4 public meeting that it was behind it, although the filing named Tombstone Resources LLC. The Texas figure matches the roughly $24 billion estimate in the Starbase city notice that Voltgrid covered on Nov. 10. The new total therefore adds an announced Arizona figure to a Texas figure already in a public notice.

Why it matters for power

The two sites ask the grid for opposite things. Reuters said Starbase would make its own power, so it would add compute without a new connection to the public grid, while the Arizona campus depends on local electric cooperatives. SpaceX said it was working with them and that the project could cut bills for cooperative members by up to 20%. That is a company claim, and no figure for how it would be achieved appeared in the reports we read.

The Arizona site also carries a water commitment. Reuters said the campus would use dry cooling, with no planned industrial groundwater use. Dry cooling swaps water for more electricity, and that makes the power supply the central question for the site.

What the filings say, and what they do not

The $74 billion figure comes from the company's own statement as Reuters and Bloomberg carried it. We did not find a filing that states it. The Starbase notice gives about $24 billion as an applicant estimate, and it does not state the abatement's size or term. The Arizona application is the Tombstone Resources LLC filing; the earlier Voltgrid report on it carries the 6 GW figure, which is a campus power need and not a statement of the money.

Local steps come next. Reuters reported that the Starbase City Commission is due to consider a property tax abatement on Dec. 9. Reuters also said a county public hearing on the Arizona campus is set for December and that a petition with 2,400 signatures asks officials to deny the permit. Other outlets give Dec. 9 for the county hearing, which matches our earlier report.

What is not confirmed yet

SpaceX's own statement could not be read directly, so the dollar figures rest on Reuters and a Bloomberg-based report. It is not clear whether the $74 billion is new money or overlaps with earlier commitments, such as the roughly $40 billion Nvidia chip lease that Voltgrid covered on Nov. 5. SpaceX has not said how much power the Starbase compute load will draw, and it is not clear what will power the Arizona campus beyond the cooperatives and existing renewable energy that The Next Web reported. Neither campus has final approval, and a hearing outcome in December could change the schedule or the size of either project.