SpaceX announced its plans on Thursday 12 November. The New York Times and Dow Jones were among those that reported the announcement. The figures and promised benefits are the company’s own. The NYT put the total at $74 billion, Dow Jones at more than $74 billion.

Texas campus to generate its own power

The Texas campus will be built on 444 acres (about 180 hectares) of SpaceX-owned land near the Starbase rocket site, the NYT reported. Dow Jones said the company intends to train frontier models there. The sum varies by source: the NYT reported $24 billion, Dow Jones about $24 billion and Anadolu more than $24 billion.

The company said the campus will generate its own power rather than draw it from the public grid. The Next Web reported that SpaceX will build its own gas-fired power plant for the campus and run it itself. The NYT said it is unclear whether the project still needs permits.

The project has already created more than 3,000 construction jobs, and the finished campus is expected to bring more than 500 permanent jobs, the company said.

Dow Jones reported that Gina Hinojosa, the incoming Democratic governor of Texas, has criticised data centres, but analysts mostly expect her to let projects that are already permitted or under way go ahead. SpaceX said: ‘Realizing its full potential will require a stable, competitive, and supportive policy environment that allows projects of this scale to move forward.’

Arizona project awaits county approval

The campus planned for Cochise County, Arizona, would cost $50 billion. The company said it would create about 5,500 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs. Teslanorth reported that the company’s project page describes nine buildings, up to 6 gigawatts of power and 24 gigawatt-hours of battery storage. The company is targeting construction in 2027, but Teslanorth noted that this is not an opening date.

SpaceX said it will work with local electricity co-operatives to use the area’s existing renewable energy, and will cool its equipment with dry cooling instead of groundwater. The company estimates that co-operative members’ electricity bills could fall by as much as 20 per cent. The Next Web said it is unclear whether the Arizona campus will also use gas.

Citing a local newspaper, The Next Web reported that hundreds of residents criticised SpaceX at a meeting last week over water, electricity bills and wildlife. Teslanorth pointed to earlier reports that the county hearing is scheduled for 9 December.

SpaceX rents computing power to Anthropic and Google

SpaceX, which went public this year, rents computing power to other AI companies. In October the company said its AI business generated more than half of its revenue, the NYT reported. Anthropic has committed to paying up to $120.5 billion by 2029, and Google pays $920 million a month.

SpaceX’s capital expenditure rose to $19.6 billion in July–September, nearly three times the figure a year earlier, the NYT reported. In October, chief financial officer Bret Johnsen estimated that capital expenditure for October–December would likely be $35–40 billion.