SpaceX files plan for $50B, 6-gigawatt supercomputing campus in Arizona

SpaceX has set its sights on one of the biggest data center builds by power capacity in the US: a $50 billion supercomputing campus in Cochise County, Arizona. The application came in through an affiliate, Tombstone Resources LLC, which filed for a special use authorization on October 30, 2026. It would be SpaceX's first jump into gigawatt-scale, grid-connected AI computing.

The numbers are the story. The Cochise Supercomputer Campus targets a peak capacity of 6 gigawatts, built out across four phases of roughly 1.5 GW each. The plan covers 747 acres and up to nine buildings at about 493,000 square feet apiece, backed by a 24 gigawatt-hour battery storage system.

SpaceX also wants to shore up the grid it plugs into, with $3.6 billion earmarked for upgrades to local electricity infrastructure. Riley Trettel, the company's head of energy and supercomputing development, confirmed at a November 4, 2026 town hall that SpaceX would own, build and operate the facility long term. The project is pitched to create 6,500 jobs, including around 1,000 permanent roles and thousands of construction jobs.

Cooling was a talking point too. SpaceX says the campus will lean on dry-cooling tech that pushes heat into the air instead of evaporating water, projecting use of 7-10 acre-feet annually, which it compares to the yearly consumption of 20-30 homes. The company told residents the campus could bring property tax revenue to the county and potentially lower electricity bills for local cooperative customers.

Next up: the Cochise County Planning and Zoning Commission takes up the proposal at a public hearing on December 9, 2026. Clear that hurdle and construction could kick off as early as March 2027.