Is SpaceX quietly building a data center at Starbase? Job postings offer clues

The growing city of Starbase, Texas, where Elon Musk anchored his rocket manufacturing and launching company, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., appears to be getting a data center soon, according to public job postings of subcontractors trying to recruit workers to build it. 

It was not immediately clear which parcel of land inside the city of Starbase or adjacent properties in Cameron County, under a long-term local development agreement with SpaceX, are being considered for the data center, but it’s likely positioned along Texas Highway 4, or Boca Chica Boulevard near the SpaceX manufacturing site and launch pads. 

The recently executed local development agreement for a property near Massey Way between the city of Starbase and SpaceX explicitly shields the public from permits related to the 166-acre site and prohibits any moratoriums — which would include data center bans — on construction. 

For example, the cities of Harlingen and Brownsville both have data center moratoriums in effect right now. But the local development agreement site sits in Cameron County under the permitting control of Starbase officials. So those moratoriums would not apply. The development deal is also 45 years long, which is typically the length of a contract a financial institution or investors would need to agree to underwrite such a project.