SpaceX · Starbase · 10 Nov 2026
SpaceX wants a tax break for a $24 billion gas plant and super-compute facility at Starbase (as of 6 Nov 2026)
A public notice from the City of Starbase says SpaceX plans to build, own and run a gas-fired power plant and a “super-compute facility” on about 444 acres next to the Port of Brownsville. The first phases alone are put at about $24 billion (as of the 6 Nov 2026 notice). Nothing is approved yet: the city commission will hear the tax-break request on 9 Dec 2026, and two of the city’s three commissioners work for SpaceX.
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The editor holds Tesla and SpaceX shares. Supercharged Daily is independent and not affiliated with either company. Nothing here is financial advice.
What the notice says
The one-page notice of public hearing, linked from the City of Starbase website, names Space Exploration Technologies Corp. as both property owner and applicant. It says SpaceX “proposes to construct, own, and operate a gas-fired power plant and super-compute facility.” The site is an approximately 444-acre tract “just east of the City of Brownsville, between Boca Chica Blvd and the Port of Brownsville,” inside Starbase city limits in Cameron County (Property ID 171887).
The cost line reads: “Estimated capital investment for initial phases of the project is approximately $24 billion, which may be constructed over multiple phases and include future expansions.” So $24 billion is SpaceX’s estimate for the start of the project, as stated on 6 Nov 2026. It is not the size of the tax break, and the notice puts no figure on later phases.
The commission will consider two deals: a property tax abatement under Chapter 312 of the Texas Tax Code, and a separate economic development agreement under Chapter 380 of the Local Government Code. The notice gives no abatement percentage, no length and no terms for the second agreement. It also says nothing about how many megawatts the plant would make or how much computing the site would hold, a gap Reuters also pointed out.
The hearing is at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 9 Dec 2026, at 48491 State Highway 4 in Starbase. The notice does not spell out the time zone; Starbase is in Central Time, so that is 8:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT. The notice says anyone interested can attend and be heard. The 956 Report, a Rio Grande Valley outlet, says the notice went up on 6 Nov 2026, 33 days ahead, and that Texas Tax Code § 312.207(d) — which the notice itself cites — requires at least 30 days.
SpaceX is planning a roughly $24 billion gas-fired power plant and super-compute facility in Starbase, Texas, according to a public hearing notice.
— Reuters Legal (@ReutersLegal) November 9, 2026
How big the power plant might be
The city notice has no capacity figure, but a state filing may. On 3 Nov 2026, The 956 Report published details of an air-permit registration it says was filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on 8 Sep 2026 for a SpaceX “Boca Chica Facility” by the port. It lists 35 gas turbines, which the filing calls temporary, totaling about 748 megawatts (6 GE Vernova TM2500 Gen 6 at 25.4 MW, 2 TM2500 Gen 8 at 27.4 MW, 9 Mitsubishi FT8 at 27.1 MW, and 18 Solar SMT-130 at 16.48 MW; those ratings add up to about 748 MW). Those would later give way to eight GE Vernova 7E turbines of about 708 MW combined (8 × 88.56 MW). Start of construction and start of operation are both listed as “TBD,” and the site’s industry code is 7374, the federal code for computer processing and data preparation.
There are two caveats. The 956 Report obtained that filing itself; Gateway to Mars found no documents posted on TCEQ’s public permit search when it checked on 3 Nov, and it said the registration (No. 185303) was still pending then. This fact-check did not re-query TCEQ on 10 Nov. The link between the turbine filing and the 6 Nov notice is also drawn by local reporters, not by the notice, which does not cite it. The site descriptions match, though, and Gateway to Mars says a city permit log lists a SpaceX application for the 444 acres at “40193 TX 4 Data Center.” The 956 Report places the filing’s coordinates roughly 13 miles west of the Starship launch pad.
For scale, Reuters reported on 4 Nov 2026 that SpaceX had about 1.7 GW of computing capacity at the end of September and aimed for up to 3 GW by year end. If the 748 MW figure in the pending filing holds, this one plant would equal a bit under half of what SpaceX ran in September. That is a rough comparison, since a data center’s power draw includes cooling and other overhead, and the 1.7 GW figure is computing capacity, not a plant rating.
Why build its own power
Reuters notes that a plant on site could let SpaceX skip the years-long wait to connect a big project to the Texas grid. SpaceX is already moving gas for Starbase: an affiliate, Lone Star Mineral Development, has filed plans for an 8-mile pipeline called Starpipe, scheduled for service by January 2027, to feed a plant that turns gas into liquid methane for Starship, according to filings Reuters said it reviewed in June. Investing.com reports that SpaceX also plans a gas plant for the chip fab it is building with Tesla in Grimes County, outside Houston.
Money is the other reason. Reuters, in its 9 Nov report, says SpaceX’s third-quarter revenue rose 161%, AI revenue rose ninefold, and it rents computing to Google, Anthropic and others.
Who decides
Starbase was incorporated in 2025 around SpaceX’s launch site, and its government is small. The city’s own commission and staff page lists three elected officials on the City Commission. Mayor Bobby Peden is SpaceX’s Vice President of Texas Test and Launch. Commissioner Jordan Buss is SpaceX’s Senior Director of Environmental, Health, and Safety. Commissioner Lois Wallace works remotely conducting clinical trials for a pharmaceutical company. So two of the three commissioners work for the applicant. The notice does not say whether anyone will step aside from the 9 Dec vote, and SpaceX and the city have not commented on that publicly in the coverage checked here.
The politics outside Starbase have also shifted. Reuters, on 9 Nov, says voters rejected data centers in 40 of 41 local ballot measures last week, and Democrats, some of whom campaigned on pausing new projects, won Congress and the Texas governor’s office. Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa called for a halt to new data-center projects, which we covered in Texas governor result puts SpaceX data center plans at risk. That is a campaign pledge and not a law. A local tax deal in Starbase also doesn’t replace the state air permit, which Gateway to Mars said TCEQ listed as pending on 3 Nov 2026.
Confirmed, and still unknown
Confirmed by the city’s 6 Nov 2026 notice: SpaceX is the applicant, the project is a gas-fired power plant plus a super-compute facility on about 444 acres, the first phases are estimated at $24 billion, and a hearing on a tax abatement and a Chapter 380 agreement is set for 9 Dec 2026.
Confirmed by the city’s commission page: the commission has three elected members, and two of them (the mayor and one commissioner) are SpaceX employees.
Reported, not in the notice: the pending TCEQ filing’s turbine counts and megawatt figures, via The 956 Report; the “about 13 miles” distance, via that outlet’s reading of the filing coordinates; the 40 of 41 ballot measures and the revenue figures, via Reuters.
Not yet known: the size and length of the tax break, the plant’s final capacity, which chips or customers the site would serve, water use, a construction date, and whether any commissioner will recuse. None of this is approved. It is a proposal headed to a hearing.
— Alex R
Sources: City of Starbase notice of public hearing (9 Dec 2026 hearing; PDF dated 6 Nov 2026); City of Starbase homepage (notice listed); City of Starbase commission and staff page; Reuters via Investing.com (9 Nov 2026); Investing.com (9 Nov 2026); Reuters via Investing.com (4 Nov 2026); The 956 Report on the notice and the TCEQ turbine filing; Gateway to Mars. Hero photo: NOAA / NODD Emergency Response Imagery, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Embedded post: @ReutersLegal. Never Electrek.
