SpaceX plans $24 billion gas plant and supercomputer site at Starbase
SpaceX is seeking a local property tax break for a gas-fired power plant and "super-compute facility" at its Starbase, Texas, site, with about $24 billion in initial investment, according to a city hearing notice. The Starbase City Commission takes up the request Dec. 9.
AI-assisted · US Brief desk · Sources listed below
What happened
SpaceX is planning a gas-fired power plant and a "super-compute facility" at Starbase, Texas, with an estimated $24 billion in capital investment for the project's first phases, according to a city public hearing notice reported by Reuters. SpaceX would build, own and operate both. The project would rank among the largest private investments in the Rio Grande Valley, Reuters said.
What SpaceX is asking for: The company wants a property tax abatement under Chapter 312 of the Texas Tax Code and a related economic development agreement under Chapter 380 of the state's local government code, Texas Construction Hub reported. The site covers about 444 acres beside the Port of Brownsville. The Starbase City Commission will hold a public hearing on both requests at 7 p.m. on Dec. 9.
The gas supply: A SpaceX affiliate, Lone Star Mineral Development, has filed plans for an 8-mile natural gas pipeline to Starbase called Starpipe, scheduled to start service by January 2027, Reuters reported. It is meant to feed a planned plant that turns gas into liquid methane for Starship rockets, according to filings Reuters reviewed in June.
Why it matters
SpaceX bought Elon Musk's AI lab xAI earlier this year, Reuters noted, tying the rocket company to the race for AI computing power. Building its own plant could let SpaceX skip a years-long wait to connect a project to Texas' main power grid. The request comes as local resistance to data centers grows: voters have rejected them in 40 of 41 local ballot measures, Reuters reported.
What’s next
The commission's Dec. 9 meeting is open to the public, and the notice invites residents to speak. The notice itself does not grant the incentives; commissioners will vote on them.
More context
What's still unknown: The notice does not say how large the tax break would be or how long it would last. It gives no figures for the power plant's generating capacity or the size of the computing operation. It also does not say which chips or customers the site would serve. The work may be done in phases with future expansions, the notice says.
3 listed sources
- Reuters via Investing.com, SpaceX plans $24 billion gas power plant, data center project in Texas, Nov. 9, 2026
- Texas Construction Hub (Ryan Mitchell), SpaceX Seeks Incentives for $24 Billion Starbase Power and Supercomputing Project, Nov. 9, 2026
- Tesla North (Sarah Lee-Jones), SpaceX Wants a Tax Break for a $24 Billion Starbase Supercomputer, Nov. 9, 2026
References listed by US Brief; a source count is not a verification score.
Editorial sourcing notes
The $24 billion estimate, the project description, the Dec. 9 hearing, the ballot-measure count and the Starpipe pipeline details are from Reuters' report on the Starbase public hearing notice. The Chapter 312 and Chapter 380 requests, the 444-acre site and the hearing time and address are from Texas Construction Hub. The hero photo shows the Starbase entrance sign and hangars (file photo, 2023), not the proposed site.
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