SpaceX moves to cast its own gas-turbine blades, aiming at the AI power crunch
Elon Musk's SpaceX is building a foundry in Bastrop, Texas to cast gas-turbine blades and vanes in-house, The Wall Street Journal reports — turbine-component supply has been a key bottleneck slowing new power for AI data centers, and it's the latest large infrastructure push from a Musk company outside Tesla.
Elon Musk's attention has turned to gas-turbine components.
According to WSJ, SpaceX is building a foundry in Bastrop, Texas to cast the blades and vanes used in gas turbines in-house. The parts must withstand roughly 3,000 to 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit, requiring internal cooling channels, thermal-barrier coatings and precise casting — a technically demanding process.
Casting turbine blades is currently considered the biggest bottleneck in expanding gas-turbine capacity. Musk argues that producing the components in-house could bring turbines online as much as 18 months sooner, calling the plan a 'profound game-changer.'
The move follows SpaceX, xAI and now Boring Company all raising capital on unusual terms in recent months, and now sees SpaceX expanding into power infrastructure that has nothing to do with Tesla's core business. For shareholders, it's another data point in the pattern of Musk's time and resources being spread across companies outside Tesla.
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