SpaceX Starbase Supercomputer Faces Texas Data Center Pause

SpaceX appears to be building a multigigawatt AI computing complex at its Starbase rocket launch site and company town in South Texas, The Information reported on November 7. Public records, job listings and steel structures rising next to parked gas turbines point to the project, and one SpaceX job post calls it the "Starbase supercomputer." The timing is awkward because Democrat Gina Hinojosa won the Texas governor's race this week after campaigning for a moratorium on new data center approvals.

What do we know about the Starbase supercomputer?

SpaceX has not announced the project or published any figures for it, but clues have been piling up for weeks. In October, the RGV Business Journal reported job postings from subcontractors recruiting workers to build a data center at Starbase, along with a large metal building going up near the site. A 45-year development agreement between the city of Starbase and SpaceX covers a 166-acre site and prohibits moratoriums on construction there, while nearby Brownsville and Harlingen already have local data center moratoriums in place.

Why could Texas slow SpaceX's AI plans?

Texas is the center of the US data center boom. Wells Fargo estimates that 27% of planned US data center gigawatts sit in the state, according to CNBC's report on the post-election sell-off. SpaceX shares fell 4% after the open on November 4 as the results came in, and Tesla dropped 5%. Hinojosa has called for pausing approvals until the legislature passes stronger rules on water use, electricity costs, local control and tax incentives. Even so, it is unclear whether Starbase already has the approvals she wants to freeze, and no timetable for that legislation has been given. Musk's response on X was brief: "Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now."

What does this mean for the AI data center race?

Local resistance to giant AI campuses is spreading well beyond Texas. Protesters stormed a Microsoft data center site in Amsterdam, and cost worries recently led to the Crusoe Wyoming data center sale to Google. Starbase may offer SpaceX insulation from state politics because it is a company town with its own permitting and a contract that bans moratoriums, but state agencies handle air permits for gas turbines, so a new governor can slow things down. That also explains why Musk keeps pitching orbital compute alongside plans to grow Starlink capacity 100x.

Sources: ShiftDelete · Techmeme