Elon Musk says SpaceX is developing an in-house manufacturing capability that could accelerate the production of natural gas turbines needed to power the rapidly expanding AI data center industry.
Musk confirmed on Saturday that a SpaceX facility under construction in Bastrop, Texas, will include a foundry for manufacturing turbine blades and vanes. The move is aimed at addressing what he described as a major bottleneck in natural gas turbine production.
According to Musk, casting these components in-house could accelerate the deployment of gas turbines by as much as 18 months. SpaceX has been acquiring land near its existing Starlink manufacturing operations in Bastrop, where the company is reportedly developing the new facility.
The initiative comes as AI infrastructure companies face a growing constraint beyond the availability of advanced chips: electricity. Data center operators are racing to secure power as AI workloads drive sharply higher demand, while grid connections and turbine manufacturing capacity remain limited.
The International Energy Agency expects global data center electricity consumption to roughly double by 2030. Meanwhile, major turbine manufacturers have faced capacity constraints as demand from AI data centers accelerates.
That shortage has pushed major technology companies toward on-site natural gas generation rather than waiting years for new grid infrastructure. Amazon, Google, Meta, OpenAI and Microsoft are among companies pursuing gas-powered solutions for data center projects.
