SpaceX Drops $2.8 Billion on Gas Turbines to Feed Its AI Data Centers

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has committed more than $2.8 billion in recent months to purchase gas turbines for powering data centers tied to its AI unit, according to a regulatory filing Wednesday. The expenditure underscores Musk’s continued reliance on gas-fired generation, even as the company faces public backlash, a lawsuit, and regulatory probes over potential emissions violations and permit avoidance.

The U.S. data center boom is hitting a wall: not enough electricity. Portable gas turbines, which operate off the grid, offer a quick fix until more permanent power sources arrive. SpaceX owns xAI, developer of the Grok chatbot, and runs two facilities—Colossus 1 in Memphis and Colossus 2 in Southaven, Mississippi. It also leases server space to Anthropic, maker of the Claude chatbot, for $15 billion annually, with more deals expected.

Disclosures in SpaceX’s IPO prospectus reveal that in March the company agreed to buy $805 million in turbines through 2029, followed by a pending $2 billion deal for mobile units from an unnamed vendor. WIRED reported last week that 19 new turbines were added to Colossus 2 in two months, bringing its total to 46. Some arrived after the NAACP and other groups sued xAI over unpermitted operations.

As of March, SpaceX’s combined data centers could draw about 1 gigawatt—roughly the power consumption of a large city. With over $14 billion in construction underway, including equipment not yet live, the company’s energy appetite is only growing.