SpaceX Lays Groundwork for Bastrop Gas-Turbine Blade Foundry

Only three foundries in the world can cast the hot-section blades and wheels that large gas turbines need, and their order books are reportedly full through 2030. That is the choke point Elon Musk's team is now moving to route around.

The Information reported this month that SpaceX is laying the groundwork for a turbine-blade factory in Bastrop, Texas. The clearest tell is on SpaceX's own careers page. In April 2026 the company posted materials, automation and operations engineer roles at a "Blades and Vanes Foundry" on the Bastrop site. One operations job description covers "construction, buildout, and operational ramp-up of a new blades and vanes foundry," and the senior materials engineer posting is scoped to producing "Ni-superalloy castings for power generation."

The parts would point in two directions at once. Morgan Stanley, in a research note released August 16, argued the play is vertical integration to serve both data-center gas turbines and Starship Raptor engine turbopumps. Musk himself flagged the plan on a February podcast, saying SpaceX and Tesla may need to manufacture turbine blades and impellers in-house to keep enough power flowing.

The context is Memphis. xAI, now folded into SpaceX, has been running a fleet of gas turbines to power its Colossus supercomputer. Data Center Dynamics reports 69 turbines currently operating there, and unpermitted units will not be fully removed until July 2027. Meanwhile, the EPA moved this month to end federal notice on data-center air permits. Neither the reporting nor the Morgan Stanley note gives a groundbreaking date, an annual output target, or a customer list beyond those two internal buyers.