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SpaceX is reportedly building a 13GW AI data center network and could add more capacity in 18 months than Google built over 27 years, according to SemiAnalysis via Benzinga.
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Elon Musk's SpaceX Could Build More Data Center Capacity in 18 Months Than Google Did in 27 Years, Says SemiAnalysis Billionaire Elon Musk-led Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) may be a commercial spaceflight company, but its aggressive compute buildout is fast becoming a crucial element of its business. SpaceX’s Data Center Buildout Exceeds Google On Tuesday, semiconductor research firm SemiAnalysis released a deep-dive analysis on SpaceX’s compute power. The aerospace heavyweight is positioning itself to build out 13GW of AI compute capacity in 1.5 years, the firm said, calling it the “largest” data center capacity in the world. Read Also: Elon Musk Reacts After Gina Hinojosa Defeats Greg Abbott in Texas Governor Race: 'Data Centers in Space Looking Pretty Appealing' The research firm also notes that this timeline would amount to the largest burst of data center infrastructure ever constructed by a single company over that period. To put that scale into perspective, SemiAnalysis highlighted that SpaceX aims to build in 18 months roughly what took Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) Google nearly three decades (from 1999 to 2026) to assemble. SemiAnalysis revealed it has already mapped out over 9GW of identified capacity across specific sites, including 3.6GW currently under active construction. SpaceX is driving these rapid buildouts by repurposing rocket campuses, evaluating facilities like its TeraFab chip fabrication facility being built in collaboration with Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA). SpaceX was also deploying power solutions like gas turbines and large-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) to bypass traditional utility interconnection delays. The analysts contend SpaceX is already outpacing hyperscale peers and Chinese builders in raw execution speed. SemiAnalysis previously outlined that reaching a 10GW footprint alone could potentially lead to $300 billion in annual recurring revenue (ARR) by the end of next year. The firm models that frontier-model AI clusters can generate approximately $100 million in revenue per megawatt annually. Bill Ackman Touts $1 Trillion Debt Investor and Pershing Square Capital founder Bill Ackman weighed in on SpaceX’s AI buildout efforts, saying that the company could rival entire countries and need a trillion dollars in financing to fund Musk’s AI data center compute targets, referring to the CEO’s comments during the Q3 2026 earnings call. Notably, SpaceX recently announced it was raising $40 billion in debt to buy graphics processing units, or GPUs, to fund the companies AI buildout targets. Jim Chanos Questions Data Centers Short seller James Chanos also questioned Musk’s data center estimates, referring to comments made by Google’s Energy Chief Amanda Peterson Corio, who warned that space-based data centers could cost 100x more than their terrestrial counterparts on Earth. Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Read Also: Grant Cardone Warns James Talarico's Texas Win Could Spell Trouble for Elon Musk's SPCX, AI Bets—Gina Hinojosa Governor Win Sparks Data Center Moratorium Talk Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link. Photo courtesy: Samuel Boivin / Shutterstock.com