The Information reported on November 7 that public records appear to show SpaceX building a “Starbase supercomputer” in Texas, according to Techmeme’s summary of the article (The Information, Techmeme). The article, under the headline “The Blue Wave May Not Stop Musk’s Texas Data Center Ambitions”, sets the project against Gina Hinojosa’s election as governor of Texas.
The site question runs through a local deal. On October 7, the city of Starbase unanimously approved a 45-year development agreement with SpaceX covering 166 acres near Massey Way in Cameron County, RGV Business Journal reported, and the agreement prohibits any moratoriums on construction there.
Business Pill · Who Pays for the Grid
An evergreen Business Engineer explainer on who pays for grid capacity. It teaches the general idea only and does not discuss SpaceX, Starbase or the records reported here.
The key insight: The Information reports that public records appear to show SpaceX building a Starbase supercomputer in Texas; RGV Business Journal reported that Starbase approved a 45-year, 166-acre development agreement with SpaceX on October 7 that prohibits moratoriums on construction.
Techmeme’s summary of The Information’s piece says Hinojosa’s election “may delay some of the data center plans”, and that Elon Musk moved early to build AI data centers in Tennessee and Mississippi. That is the outlet’s analysis; the article’s own headline says the change in Austin “may not stop” Musk’s Texas data center plans. The rest of the article sits behind The Information’s paywall, and we have not seen the records it cites.
A month earlier, on October 14, RGV Business Journal reported that Starbase “appears to be getting a data center soon”, based on public job postings from subcontractors recruiting workers to build it. The paper said it was not immediately clear which parcel would be used, and that the site was likely along Texas Highway 4, or Boca Chica Boulevard, near SpaceX’s manufacturing site and launch pads.
Starbase approved a 45-year, 166-acre development agreement with SpaceX on October 7 that bars moratoriums; on October 14 RGV Business Journal reported job postings pointing to a Starbase data center; on November 5 Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa told CNN Texas needs to stop what it is doing with data centers until protections are in place; on November 7 The Information reported records appear to show a ‘Starbase supercomputer’. Sources: RGV Business Journal, Reuters, The Information via Techmeme.
The 45-Year Deal
The 166-acre agreement, RGV Business Journal reported, “prohibits any moratoriums” on construction, which would include data center bans. The cities of Harlingen and Brownsville both have data center moratoriums in effect, the paper reported, but the agreement site sits in Cameron County under the permitting control of Starbase officials, so those moratoriums would not apply.
The paper reported that 45 years is the maximum term allowed by Texas local government law, which locks the deal in until 2071, and that a 45-year term is typically the length of contract a financial institution or investors would need to underwrite such a project. By our arithmetic, 45 years spans more than 11 four-year terms of a Texas governor.
Where the Governor-Elect Stands
Hinojosa told CNN on November 5 that Texas needs to stop what it is doing with data centers until protections are in place, Reuters reported (our earlier piece). Her words: “We will have laws to protect Texans, and we need to stop what we are doing with data centers until we have those protections”. She takes office on January 19. We covered the state’s earlier permit pause and developers’ moves elsewhere in a piece last month.
What the State Records Show
A Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation registration filed on June 27, 2025 lists a SpaceX project at Starbase named Gigabay: 700,000 square feet of new construction at an estimated cost of $250 million, due for completion on December 31, 2026, described as “A specialized industrial facility to accommodate SpaceX’s manufacturing processes” (TDLR TABS2025022205). It does not mention a data center, and we have not located the records The Information cites.
As we read the RGV Business Journal reporting, the agreement moves the permitting question for that site to Starbase officials rather than to neighbouring cities with data center moratoriums.
As we read the timeline, the supercomputer report and the development agreement are separate records: RGV Business Journal said the data center parcel was not clear, and we have not seen the records The Information cites.
As we read the term, 45 years runs to 2071, as the paper reported, which by our arithmetic spans more than 11 four-year terms of a Texas governor.
Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa to CNN, as reported by Reuters
“We will have laws to protect Texans, and we need to stop what we are doing with data centers until we have those protections”
Three Implications
FOR SITE SELECTION RGV Business Journal reported that Harlingen and Brownsville have data center moratoriums in effect, and that they would not apply to the agreement site under Starbase’s permitting control.
FOR FINANCING The paper reported that a 45-year term is typically the length of contract a financial institution or investors would need to underwrite such a project.
FOR TEXAS POLICY Hinojosa, who takes office on January 19, told CNN that Texas needs to stop what it is doing with data centers until protections are in place, Reuters reported.
The analysis says: “The job of any operator, investor, or builder is to know which layer they are operating inside and which layer the binding constraint is rotating toward next.”
As we read it, local permitting is one of the physical constraints on AI compute buildouts. The analysis does not discuss SpaceX, Starbase or Texas.
What Is Not Established
We have not seen the public records The Information cites, so the supercomputer’s size, power draw, cost, parcel and owning entity are not established here. RGV Business Journal reported that the data center’s parcel was not clear, so it is not established that the supercomputer sits on the 166-acre agreement site. Whether a new governor or legislature would affect the project is the outlets’ analysis, not a reported decision. This piece makes no forecast.
This Week In The AI Supercycle
The Great Convergence of Capital, Power, and Geopolitics
This week’s issue: for two years the AI build-out was priced as a supply story, and last week as a credit story. This week it was priced as a permission story, and the answer arrived as a cost, not a ban.
The Information reports that public records appear to show a SpaceX “Starbase supercomputer” in Texas. RGV Business Journal reported that Starbase approved a 45-year, 166-acre development agreement with SpaceX on October 7 that prohibits moratoriums on construction, and that subcontractor job postings point to a data center at Starbase.
A note on sourcing. The supercomputer report is The Information’s, as summarized by Techmeme; the article body is paywalled and we have not seen the records it cites. The development agreement and job-posting details are RGV Business Journal’s reporting; the Gigabay figures are from a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation registration; Hinojosa’s words are as reported by Reuters. The term arithmetic is ours.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
