SpaceX told officials in Texas and Arizona on Nov. 12 that it has a new plan1. It wants to spend more than $74 billion on two AI supercomputing campuses. One sits at Starbase, the rocket company's home port in South Texas. The other sits near Willcox Playa, on 747 acres of Arizona desert.
Elon Musk built SpaceX to launch rockets. Its chief executive now runs a second business: leasing computers to other AI labs1.
Two Campuses, Pending Approval
The Arizona site alone could cost $50 billion, built across nine buildings and a battery yard1. SpaceX designed the site to draw six gigawatts of power once every building is finished.
Construction waits on Cochise County's signature first. A hearing is set for Dec. 9, and 2,400 residents already signed a petition against the plan1.
The Texas campus costs less, near $24 billion1. It sits beside the Starbase launch pads, where SpaceX flies Starship. The Texas plant would generate its own power and skip the public grid. Local officials still have to grant their own approval before anyone breaks ground.
Cash Keeps Draining
SpaceX held $100 billion in cash and short-term securities on June 302. Three months later, on Sept. 30, that pile had shrunk to $89.9 billion3. Capital spending explains most of the drop: $19.6 billion in the third quarter alone, up from $18.4 billion in the second.
Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen told analysts on Oct. 20 that spending would nearly double again. He guided the fourth quarter to $35 billion to $40 billion4. Operating cash came in well under that, covering only about half of the third quarter's bill3.
Johnsen's first answer to that gap was the balance sheet. "There are a number of available pools of debt capital that we are talking to at the moment related to funding this incredible growth," he said4. SpaceX took on $51.8 billion in new debt over nine months. The company also repaid $39.8 billion of older debt, and sold its first-ever bond, worth $25 billion, back in June23.
An investment-grade rating lets a company borrow at a lower interest rate, because lenders trust it to repay. SpaceX still holds one, which Johnsen said gives it "the advantage" over rivals chasing the same capital4.
SpaceX's Quarterly AI Spending Nearly Doubles Again, to $37.5 Billion
SpaceX's capital expenditure on AI computing, by quarter, 2026, billions of dollars
Each column is one quarter's AI capital spending; the last column, lighter, is an estimate at the midpoint of CFO Bret Johnsen's own guidance for the quarter now underway.
Sources: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission [3]; The Motley Fool [4]. Chart by Ryan Elliott Dennis.
The numbers behind this chart
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Q2 2026 | $18.4B |
| Q3 2026 | $19.6B |
| Q4 2026 (guided) (estimate) | $37.5B |
Two AI Labs Already Pay the Bills
SpaceX already rents out computers at its existing Colossus data centers67. Google pays $920 million a month there for Nvidia chips, on a lease that runs through June 20295. Anthropic pays close to $1.25 billion a month under its own agreement, also running through 2029. Reflection, a smaller AI company, pays $150 million a month on the same kind of terms.
Those three leases add up to roughly $2.3 billion a month6. Musk himself sounds doubtful every deal runs its full term. "SpaceX has not committed to leasing Colossus for years, although it's possible that may be what happens," he told Fortune.
Each lease carries the same opening: either side can cancel with 90 days' notice67. SpaceX wrote that clause for its own benefit first. It wanted room to reclaim capacity if its AI unit, called Super Intelligence, needed it back. The same clause works both ways.
Anthropic Pays SpaceX $1.25 Billion a Month, More Than the Other Two Tenants Combined
Monthly lease payments for AI compute capacity at SpaceX's Colossus data centers, as reported through Aug. 2026
Each bar is one company's monthly lease payment to SpaceX; the magenta bar is the piece's central case, Anthropic, and every contract shown lets either side cancel with 90 days' notice.
Each company's lease was reported on a different date between May and August 2026, so a later renegotiation could change any one figure.
Sources: CNBC [5]; Yahoo Finance [6]. Chart by Ryan Elliott Dennis.
The numbers behind this chart
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Anthropic | $1,250M |
| $920M | |
| Reflection | $150M |
The Bet, Defended and Doubted
Johnsen's case rests on speed more than size. "The payback period is very short," he told analysts. "And so this capability starts to fund itself in a pretty near-term situation"4.
A Moody's analyst backs that view from the outside. Sean Cray covers telecom, media and technology there as a senior analyst. He called the leasing business a new way for SpaceX to earn money beyond its rockets. "It shows that there's just different pathways for them to generate revenue in their AI segment," Cray said7.
Demand for computing power, by Cray's account, still outruns supply across the AI industry. Sridhar Tayur reads the same contract and sees the other side. He teaches operations management at Carnegie Mellon University, and he points straight at the clause Johnsen calls flexible. "Is it a one-off thing that is not your main line of business? Or is infrastructure as a service going to become a permanent part?" Tayur asked7.
Tayur's caution lands on the number that matters most to a reader with money riding on any of these companies. A $74 billion construction bill deserves revenue sturdier than a lease either party can walk away from in a quarter.
What to do
Mark two dates before taking SpaceX's $74 billion at face value. Cochise County holds its permit hearing on Dec. 91. The Starbase City Commission votes the same month on tax relief for the Texas site. Both decisions settle whether the campuses get built as planned, and town councils, more than Wall Street, hold the real veto here.
A reader with money in SpaceX, Alphabet or Anthropic should watch one line on the next earnings call. SpaceX will say how much of the quarter's spending came from cash, and how much came from debt34. Johnsen's own guidance, $35 billion to $40 billion for the fourth quarter, gives a number to check the real result against. One Motley Fool analysis already urged investors to wait for that answer before buying the stock on the campus news alone8.
By the numbers
- $74 billion: SpaceX's planned spending on two new AI campuses, announced Nov. 12, 20261.
- A $10 billion drop: cash and securities on hand, from $100 billion to $89.9 billion in one quarter23.
- $19.6 billion: capital spending in the third quarter of 2026, almost double the $10.6 billion spent a year earlier3.
- Monthly lease income of $2.3 billion: $920 million from Google, $1,250 million from Anthropic and $150 million from Reflection56.
- 90 days: the notice either side needs to cancel those leases67.
- $51.8 billion: new debt SpaceX took on in the first nine months of 20263.
- Fourth-quarter guidance of $35 billion to $40 billion: Johnsen's own number for analysts to check SpaceX against4.
- Jobs tied to both campuses: 8,500 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent ones, by SpaceX's own count1.
What to watch
Cochise County holds its hearing on Dec. 9, and the Starbase City Commission votes the same month1. SpaceX's next earnings call will show whether operating cash flow finally covers a bigger share of its AI spending34. A renewed Google or Anthropic lease would settle the question the 90-day clause now leaves open67. That renewal would have to run past 2029, signed well before the current term arrives.
Sources
- Clyde Hughes, "SpaceX to build $74B AI supercomputing facilities in Texas, Arizona," UPI, Nov. 12, 2026, https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/11/12/spacex-musk-AI-supercomputing-texas-arizona/8361794521839
- Space Exploration Technologies Corp, Form 8-K (second-quarter 2026 earnings release), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Aug. 4, 2026, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001181412/000162828026052515/earningsreleaseq22608042.htm
- Space Exploration Technologies Corp, Form 8-K (third-quarter 2026 earnings release), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Oct. 20, 2026, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001181412/000162828026066482/spcx-20261020.htm
- Motley Fool Transcribing, "SpaceX (SPCX) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript," The Motley Fool, Oct. 20, 2026, https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2026/10/20/spacex-spcx-q3-2026-earnings-call-transcript/
- Jonathan Vanian, "Google to pay SpaceX $920 million a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers," CNBC, June 5, 2026, https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/05/google-to-pay-spacex-920-million-a-month-for-xai-compute-capacity.html
- Bram Berkowitz, "SpaceX Has Landed Data Center Deals With Anthropic, Google, and Reflection That Could Be Worth Over $76 Billion Through 2029," Yahoo Finance, Aug. 15, 2026, https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/spacex-landed-data-center-deals-081500849.html
- Jason Del Rey, "Beyond rockets and satellites, SpaceX is quietly building an AI compute business that may become key to its eye-popping valuation," Fortune, July 19, 2026, https://fortune.com/2026/07/19/spacex-ai-compute-renting-business-google-anthropic-pentagon-deals-revenue-valuation-elon-musk-colossus-data-centers/
- Daniel Sparks, "SpaceX Just Announced 2 New AI Supercomputing Campuses. I'd Wait Before Buying the Stock.," The Motley Fool, Nov. 14, 2026, https://www.fool.com/investing/2026/11/14/spacex-just-announced-2-new-ai-supercomputing-campuses-i-d-wait-before-buying-the-stock/
