SpaceX to Build Texas Foundry for Gas Turbine Blades to Power AI
Elon Musk confirmed that SpaceX is building a gas turbine blade and vane foundry in Bastrop, Texas, to bypass a critical supply chain bottleneck for AI data center power generation. The market for high-temperature gas turbine blades is highly monopolized by only three global manufacturers with order backlogs stretching to 2030. By producing these components in-house, SpaceX expects to accelerate turbine deployment timelines by up to 18 months, addressing a major constraint in powering the AI boom. The foundry will manufacture hot-section components that must operate at extreme temperatures of 3,000–3,600°F (1,650–1,980°C). Additionally, Musk announced that SpaceX and Tesla are each building 100GW of solar power production capacity over the next three years.
## BACKGROUND
Gas turbine hot-section components operate under extreme thermal and mechanical stress, requiring advanced manufacturing techniques like investment casting of nickel-base superalloys. Traditionally, producing these single-crystal turbine blades is highly complex, expensive, and time-consuming, often taking over a year for a single set.