SpaceX Supercomputing Facility Doesn’t Require Water Cooling

SpaceX is known for launching rockets and satellites into orbit. Now, the company is taking its hardware experience in a new direction by building massive supercomputers right here on Earth.

The company recently announced plans for two major supercomputer campuses in the U.S. One will sit at Starbase in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, and the other will be in Cochise County, Arizona. Together, these projects represent more than $74 billion in planned American investment. This comes right on the heels of SpaceX’s $100 billion Terafab chip manufacturing project and a multibillion-dollar expansion of its Starlink facility in Bastrop, Texas.

The goal is to train advanced intelligence systems that can speed up work in medical research, emergency response, manufacturing, and national security. The sites will also test tech for future space-based computing.

Building in Texas and Arizona

In South Texas, SpaceX plans to invest up to $24 billion at Starbase, adding to the $15 billion it has already spent there on Starship. The project has already created over 3,000 construction jobs and will support more than 500 permanent roles. Over in Arizona, the company is planning a roughly $50 billion campus. That site should bring about 5,500 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent positions.

Large tech projects often strain local utilities, so SpaceX is designing these sites to handle their own power and water needs. The Starbase facility will generate its own electricity instead of pulling from the public grid. In Arizona, SpaceX is working with local electric cooperatives to use existing renewable energy and dry cooling, which avoids industrial groundwater use and could cut members’ electric bills by up to 20%.

Local Water and Land

The Texas project also includes a $220 million commitment to expand Brownsville’s water and wastewater systems, with $40 million already delivered. This money closes a funding gap for projects that will add 20 million gallons of daily water capacity through slightly salty groundwater treatment and water reuse. Brownsville keeps full ownership of the facilities, and the private funding saves local water customers over $370 million in potential long-term costs.

SpaceX is also cleaning up about 444 acres of nearby land that was disannexed to the City of Starbase. Portions of this property suffered from illegal dumping since the 1960s, so crews are clearing out old tires, scrap metal, and appliances to put the land to productive use.

As the company stated, “We’re ready to build. And we’re committed to making sure the communities where we build share in the benefits.”