Roughly three-quarters of Brownsville's primary water supply comes from two Rio Grande reservoirs that have both faced critically low water levels.

A Regional Water Problem Frames a Compute Buildout

With drought and growing demand straining the region's resources, SpaceX says expanding alternative supplies has become essential. That water challenge sits at the center of the company's November 12, 2026, announcement, posted on its updates page, of two supercomputing campuses with data centers totaling more than USD 74 billion in planned American investment, one at Starbase in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and one in Cochise County, Arizona.

Alongside the Texas compute campus, SpaceX has committed USD 220 million in private capital to expand water and wastewater infrastructure for Brownsville and Cameron County, which the company calls the largest private contribution to Brownsville's water future in the city's history. Of that sum, USD 40 million has already been provided to the Brownsville Public Utilities Board to begin the work.

The Southmost Regional Water Authority has identified projects capable of adding approximately 20 million gallons of water per day from sources independent of the Rio Grande: 8 million gallons per day through potable reuse of water Brownsville already treats, and 12 million gallons per day through expansion of the region's brackish-groundwater treatment capacity.

According to the announcement, those projects had been identified and grant funding secured, but a roughly USD 220 million funding gap remained.

SpaceX says its commitment will help create that 20 million gallons per day of additional capacity, strengthen long-term water security, and avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in potential costs to local ratepayers.

The Starbase Campus and Its Off-Grid Power Plan

The Texas facility will be developed on SpaceX-owned property near the Port of Brownsville and the City of Brownsville landfill, with planned investment of up to USD 24 billion.

The company characterizes it as one of the largest potential private investments in the history of the Rio Grande Valley, building on the more than USD 15 billion SpaceX says it has already invested in Starship and related infrastructure at Starbase.

The project has already generated more than 3,000 construction jobs, with thousands more expected as development continues, and once operational, it is expected to support more than 500 permanent jobs.

A distinguishing feature of the Starbase facility is that it will generate its own electricity rather than drawing power from the public grid.

SpaceX says this design ensures the facility's energy demands do not compete with local homes and businesses or shift generation costs onto existing ratepayers.

The Arizona Site Takes a Different Resource Approach

The second campus, in Cochise County, Arizona, is a roughly USD 50 billion project expected to create approximately 5,500 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs.

Where the Texas site generates its own power, the Arizona project works with local electric cooperatives to strengthen regional energy infrastructure and leverage existing renewable resources.

SpaceX says that effort could potentially reduce electricity bills for cooperative members by up to 20 percent. The campus will use dry cooling, with no planned industrial groundwater consumption.

Training Frontier Intelligence Systems

SpaceX says it is applying its hardware-building experience to constructing supercomputers. The two facilities will train frontier intelligence systems intended to accelerate breakthroughs in medical research, emergency response, advanced manufacturing, and national security, while also helping develop and test technologies for the future of space-based computing.

The company describes the projects as an extension of its existing work manufacturing rockets, spacecraft, satellite constellations, and spaceports, along with its recently announced USD 100 billion Terafab advanced chip manufacturing project in Grimes County, Texas, and its multibillion-dollar expansion of the Starlink production facility in Bastrop, Texas.

The company draws a direct line between its Texas history and its ambitions, saying it has helped make South Texas a center of American aerospace innovation and now sees an opportunity to help make Texas and Arizona global leaders in supercomputing and super intelligence.

Policy Conditions and Economic Framing

SpaceX frames both projects as economic drivers beyond the facilities themselves, saying the investments will expand local tax bases, generate substantial new revenue for schools and public services, and create economic opportunities throughout the surrounding regions.

Together, the campuses represent thousands of new jobs, new power and water projects, and what the company calls an opportunity to transform regional economies while advancing technologies that will benefit humanity.

The announcement also ties the projects' prospects to public policy.

SpaceX states that realizing the full potential of the Starbase investment will require a stable, competitive, and supportive policy environment that allows projects of this scale to move forward.

More broadly, the company says these investments require strong partnerships with local communities, responsible environmental stewardship, and stable, competitive policies that give companies the confidence to make long-term investments.

Commitments to the Host Communities

SpaceX closes its announcement with a commitment to the regions hosting the new facilities. "We're ready to build," the company states, adding that it is committed to making sure the communities where it builds share in the benefits.

The USD 220 million water commitment in Brownsville, the off-grid power design at Starbase, and the dry-cooling approach in Arizona are presented as examples of that approach, alongside the job creation and infrastructure spending detailed across both projects. The announcement does not specify construction timelines or operational start dates for either campus.

It does indicate, however, that the Starbase project is already underway in at least one respect, more than 3,000 construction jobs have been generated, and USD 40 million of the water investment has already been delivered to the Brownsville Public Utilities Board.