Nov 12 (Reuters) – SpaceX said on Thursday it plans to invest more than $74 billion in two supercomputing campuses, its Starbase site in Texas and in Cochise County, Arizona, expanding its AI computing ambitions alongside rocket and satellite businesses.
The AI segment of the Elon Musk-led company, which went public in June, generated more than half of its revenue in the third quarter, highlighting how far the business has moved beyond rockets and Starlink satellite internet.
SpaceX expects to spend more than $24 billion on the Starbase site and roughly $50 billion on the Arizona campus, it said in a statement.
The Arizona campus, which needs approval from Cochise County, would create about 5,500 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs.
SpaceX said it was working with local electric cooperatives and the project could cut bills for cooperative members by up to 20%. It said the campus would use dry cooling, with no planned industrial groundwater use.
The facility, however, faces some opposition. A petition with 2,400 signatures has asked officials to deny the permit, and a county public hearing is set for December.
The Starbase facility would generate its own electricity rather than draw from the public grid.
A city notice this week showed plans for a gas-fired power plant and supercomputing facility on about 444 acres.
The Starbase City Commission is due to consider a property tax abatement for the project on December 9.
SpaceX said the Texas project had generated more than 3,000 construction jobs and would support more than 500 permanent jobs once operational.
(Reporting by Anzar Mehraj and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Shilpi Majumdar)
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