The relatively large investment shows Musk continuing to double down on gas turbine efforts, even after SpaceX’s use of them sparked public complaints, a lawsuit and regulatory inquiries over whether the company may be polluting the air with carbon emissions and evading environmental requirements.
Electricity shortages are the main impediment to the massive data center boom happening across the United States. Portable gas turbines – generators that can operate without drawing power from the grid – are seen as quick, temporary solutions until more powerful power sources are available.
In addition to launching rockets and selling satellite internet, SpaceX also owns Musk’s xAI unit, which is developing Grok. To support its chatbot and other AI efforts, xAI operates a pair of data centers known as Colossus 1 in Memphis, Tennessee and Colossus 2 in Southaven, Mississippi. SpaceX is leasing access to some servers in its Colossus data centers for $15 billion a year to Anthropic, an AI startup developing the Claude chatbot. Musk said on Wednesday that SpaceX plans to sign additional deals.
The new details about SpaceX’s energy spending are part of a wave of disclosures in the company’s prospectus for its initial public offering, a lengthy document designed to help potential investors understand the company’s financial health and long-term risks. SpaceX aims to debut on the Nasdaq in the coming weeks.
In March, SpaceX agreed to buy turbines worth $805 million from an unnamed company through 2029, according to an IPO filing. Then in late April, Musk closed a $2 billion deal for mobile gas turbines and related items from an unnamed seller. This deal is still pending.
Last week, WIRED reported that 19 new portable turbines had been added to Colossus 2 over the past two months, for a total of 46 units. Portable turbines can operate without a clean air permit for a year, a rule SpaceX has used to its advantage. Some of the turbines were added after the NAACP and other advocacy groups sued XAI, alleging that the company was operating 27 gas turbines without proper permits, posing a public health and climate risk.
As of March, SpaceX had enough servers between its two data centers to use about 1 gigawatt of power, roughly equivalent to the amount of electricity used by a large U.S. city. But the company expects to continue to grow, which will increase its energy needs. SpaceX has more than $14 billion in construction work underway, including the value of data center equipment that is not yet operational, according to Wednesday’s filing.
