Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) has built rockets by controlling more of the manufacturing process than traditional aerospace companies.
Now Elon Musk is applying the same playbook to AI’s biggest physical bottleneck: electricity, with SpaceX developing its own gas turbine component manufacturing in Texas to avoid a power equipment supply chain that has been stretched for years.
SpaceX’s Power Play
SpaceX is laying the groundwork for a foundry in Bastrop, Texas, to produce the blades and vanes used in large gas turbines, The Information reported. SpaceX has been hiring engineers for the facility, including roles tied to materials, automation, tooling and the construction of a new manufacturing line.
Musk subsequently confirmed the strategy on X, saying natural gas will still be needed to “supplement and bootstrap solar for several years.” He said bringing blade and vane casting in-house could accelerate gas turbines coming online by as much as 18 months, calling the result a “profound game-changer.”
The reason SpaceX is going this far is simple: AI data centers need enormous amounts of reliable power, and waiting for new grid connections can take too long.
AI’s Power Bottleneck
The hardest part may not be generating electricity itself, but getting the equipment needed to generate it.
The Information reported that only a handful of companies can produce the highly specialized turbine blades required for industrial-scale gas turbines, with those foundries already operating near capacity. GE Vernova Inc‘s (NYSE:GEV) turbine business, for example, has seen orders extending into 2030.
The blades operate at temperatures of roughly 3,000 to 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit and require sophisticated casting techniques, making the manufacturing process difficult to replicate quickly, TechCrunch reported.
For SpaceX, that makes vertical integration more than a manufacturing preference. It becomes a way to remove a bottleneck standing between an AI facility and the computing power it needs.
From Rockets to AI Infrastructure
The bigger shift is where SpaceX is applying that philosophy.
The company is developing Terafab, an ambitious semiconductor manufacturing project in Texas, while also expanding its AI infrastructure. The turbine effort effectively connects those ambitions: SpaceX wants to produce AI hardware, but it also needs sufficient electricity to power the infrastructure that supports it.
That is an unusually broad form of vertical integration. SpaceX isn’t simply buying GPUs or leasing data-center capacity; it is increasingly trying to control the physical systems around the compute, from manufacturing to power.
The most important signal is not that SpaceX is entering the turbine business. It is that AI demand is pushing even technology companies into traditionally industrial businesses.
As power becomes as important as chips in determining how quickly AI infrastructure can scale, companies that control constrained physical inputs could gain an advantage that software alone cannot provide.
Photo courtesy: Shutterstock
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