SpaceX plans $74 billion for two data center campuses, $50 billion of it in Arizona

SpaceX said on Thursday it plans to invest $74 billion in two new data center campuses, one in Texas and one in Arizona, according to The New York Times. The Wall Street Journal and Reuters carried the same headline figure, "more than $74 billion." We could read only the Times report in full; the other two sit behind a paywall or a redirect, so the breakdown below is the Times' account of SpaceX's announcement.

What SpaceX says it will build

The two figures add to the $74 billion. These are proposals, not completed spending, and nothing in the reporting gives a start date or a finish date.

The number behind the number

$74 billion is easier to size against what SpaceX is already spending. The Times reports that third-quarter capital expenditure rose to $19.6 billion, nearly triple the year before, and that CFO Bret Johnsen said the company was likely to spend $35 billion to $40 billion in the three months ending in December. Our Q3 results story covers the quarter: revenue of $14.58 billion, with AI at $7.56 billion. At the guided fourth-quarter pace, one quarter of capex would be roughly half of this entire two-campus plan.

We have not seen a timeline for the $74 billion, so we cannot say how much falls in any one year. Treat it as the size of the ambition, not a new line in a budget. Separately, SpaceX also closed $40 billion of debt financing for chips in October, as the Times notes; our earlier look at that debt has the terms we could verify.

Who is paying for the computing power

The campuses make sense only if the customers keep renting. The Times reports that SpaceX's AI business made up more than half of its revenue in the October report, that Anthropic has committed to pay up to $120.5 billion through 2029, and that Google pays $920 million a month. Those are the figures that justify the build; a customer that leaves, or a rival that builds its own capacity, is the risk to it. Amazon, Meta and Microsoft have also spent tens of billions on their own campuses, the Times adds.

The stock

SPCX traded at $141.60 at 2:51 PM ET Thursday, up $1.85 or 1.32%, per Nasdaq.com. On our chart that is 17.6% below its October 6 peak within this three-month window.

That the plan is partly self-powered matters locally. A campus that generates its own electricity does not add to grid demand in the Rio Grande Valley, though the reporting does not say what fuel it would use, and we will not guess. In Arizona, county approval is the next gate to watch, though no date has been reported.

What to watch

• The Cochise County approval process and any hearing date.
• Whether SpaceX files details or financing for either campus.
• Fourth-quarter capex against the $35 billion to $40 billion guide, when the company next reports.

More on the stock: stocks and markets.

Sources: The New York Times, Nov 12 2026; headlines from The Wall Street Journal and Reuters; Nasdaq.com quote at 2:51 PM ET; our own earlier SpaceX coverage. Figures other than the quote are as reported by the Times from SpaceX's statements and have not been checked against a SpaceX filing. This is market information, not investment advice.