Musk confirms SpaceX building gas turbine blade foundry in Texas to ease AI power bottleneck

Elon Musk, the world's richest person, posted on X that SpaceX plans to build a foundry in Bastrop, Texas, to make gas turbine blades and vanes. Right now, only three foundries worldwide can produce large gas turbine hot-end blades, and their orders are booked through 2030, which is a major bottleneck for powering AI data centers.

These blades need to work at temperatures around 1650-1980°C, which is extremely demanding for casting. Musk warned back in February that blade shortages could limit power for AI chips. He says making their own blades could speed up gas turbine deployment by up to 18 months, calling it a "profound game changer."

Musk also announced that SpaceX and Tesla are each building solar production capacity of 100 gigawatts per year, which is expected to take about three years.