SpaceX is asking Starbase, Texas, to approve a $24 billion gas-powered supercomputer, worth 17 times the firm’s 18,712 BTC treasury at current prices.
Key Facts
SpaceX asked the City of Starbase, Texas, to approve a $24 billion gas-fired power plant and “super-compute facility” at its rocket site.
The project costs roughly 17 times the $1.39 billion value of the 18,712 BTC SpaceX holds, based on current prices.
The city commission is scheduled to hold a public hearing on SpaceX’s requested tax abatement on Dec. 9.
SpaceX has asked the City of Starbase, Texas, to approve a $24 billion project, roughly 17 times the value of its treasury’s 18,712 Bitcoin (BTC), combining a natural gas power plant with what a city notice calls a “super-compute facility.”
What SpaceX Is Asking Starbase to Approve
The notice states that “SpaceX proposes to construct, own, and operate a gas-fired power plant and super-compute facility.” SpaceX disclosed its Bitcoin holdings in its initial public offering (IPO) filing earlier this year; the holdings are worth about $1.39 billion at current prices.
The project would sit at Starbase, built around SpaceX’s rocket factory and launch site in Cameron County. SpaceX is also asking Starbase to apply the Cameron County Enterprise Zone and grant a property tax abatement, with a public hearing on the request set for Dec. 9.
Project Cost Dwarfs SpaceX’s Bitcoin Treasury
The power plant would reportedly run 35 turbines producing 748 megawatts, according to an X post from the account Newsforce.
Most AI data centers draw power from the local grid instead of building standalone generation on this scale.
SpaceX completed its IPO in June, raising $75 billion in the largest IPO in history. In February, Elon Musk merged xAI into SpaceX in a stock swap valuing the combined firm at about $1.25 trillion.
The gas-power push follows a broader pattern. Anthropic recently agreed to buy 1.7 gigawatts of gas-fired generators for $3.4 billion, according to the Financial Times. The Global Commodity Trader Index wrote on X that “the AI boom is becoming a gas story.”
Texas Politics Could Complicate the Project
Democrat Gina Hinojosa won the state’s governor’s race on Nov. 3, defeating Republican incumbent Greg Abbott after campaigning against unchecked data center growth.
Abbott had already paused new data centers in the state grid operator’s connection process on Aug. 3, pending an audit of on-site power generation and its effects on water and local communities.
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