The Blue Wave May Not Stop Musk’s Texas Data Center Ambitions

AI Summary

SpaceX is developing a multigigawatt AI data center, called the Starbase supercomputer, on its expanding property in Texas near the U.S.-Mexico border. A surprise gubernatorial win by Democrat Gina Hinojosa could prompt closer scrutiny and delay parts of the project, though it may not stop the plans.

Elon Musk moved early to build AI data centers in Tennessee and Mississippi and reaped the rewards. Later, he began working on ambitious plans to open SpaceX data centers in Texas, following on the heels of OpenAI and others that are farther along in the state. Democrat Gina Hinojosa’s surprise election as governor this week could delay parts of Musk’s projects, though, even if it doesn’t derail them completely. New details are emerging on bold data center plans from Musk’s SpaceX that could face a hard look from Hinojosa. Public records, job listings and rapidly rising steel structures with gas turbines parked beside them suggest SpaceX has begun building a multigigawatt “Starbase supercomputer”—the term used in one SpaceX job post—in its expanding City of Starbase. That’s the sprawling SpaceX property on the Texas-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley from which it launches its gigantic Starship rocket.