❯ SpaceX proposes a gas plant and supercomputer in Starbase, Texas, with $24 billion in estimated initial investment

A city notice puts a scope and cost on the proposalA public hearing notice from Starbase, Texas, describes a SpaceX proposal to build, own, and operate a gas-fired power plant and a supercomputing facility. The initial phases are estimated to require about $24 billion in capital investment. The notice allows for a phased build and future expansion and gives no separate budgets for the plant, computing hardware, or other work.

An industrial site and a local tax applicationThe proposed site spans about 444 acres east of Brownsville, between Boca Chica Boulevard and the Port of Brownsville, in the Cameron County Enterprise Zone. SpaceX has applied for a local property tax abatement. The Starbase City Commission is scheduled to hold a December 9 hearing and consider both the tax relief and a related economic development agreement. Both are still pending.

Power goes into the same construction plan as computingReuters reported that SpaceX already rents computing capacity to customers including Google and Anthropic. The Starbase proposal puts the power plant and supercomputer in one project, which could reduce the wait for a connection to the main Texas grid. On a campus built in phases, server deliveries, electricity, and cooling still have to line up. The public notice names no customer for the new site.

The hearing deals with local agreementsThe notice gives no size or duration for the proposed tax relief. It also leaves out the plant’s generating capacity, the date for the first phase to go into operation, and the planned server count. The December hearing covers local tax and economic development arrangements, while construction schedules for the plant and computing facility will determine when each phase can deliver capacity.

▮ SIGNALBringing generation into the same project gives SpaceX more control over when expensive hardware can go live and makes a power plant delay a problem it has to manage directly.