Only 3 companies in the world can make this, so Musk decided to make it himself

The AI computing power war has ultimately come down to this: the bottleneck isn’t chips—it’s electricity.

Today (8/30), The Information revealed that SpaceX is preparing to build a foundry in Bastrop, Texas, specifically to produce blades and vanes for large gas turbines. Musk subsequently confirmed it himself, saying that in-house casting could bring gas turbines online up to 18 months sooner—“This is a profound game changer.”

Why is this so important? Three sets of data:

1. Extremely high technical barriers: The blades must operate at 3000–3600°F (approximately 1650–1980°C), about 800°F higher than the melting point of the material itself. Only 3–4 foundries worldwide possess this capability, and major manufacturers such as GE Vernova are already booked through 2030.

2. Severe supply-demand imbalance: According to JPMorgan data, global gas turbine orders surged 71% year over year in Q2, reaching a record high. A combined-cycle gas turbine scheduled for delivery in 2031 now costs 3 times as much as it did last year. Wood Mackenzie forecasts that data center power consumption will grow 96% from 2026 to 2031.

3. Musk warned about this early on: In a podcast this February, he said that blades and vanes were the “limiting factor” in turbine deliveries, and that at the current production capacity, “it’s uncertain whether there will be enough electricity to power all the AI chips currently in production.”

Musk also announced that SpaceX and Tesla are each building solar capacity at the fastest possible pace, with annual capacity of 100GW, but that natural gas will remain a necessary option for supplementing and supporting solar power over the next several years.

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas added that the foundry could also produce castings for the turbopumps of Raptor rocket engines, allowing the aerospace and AI businesses to share costs.

Another move by the master of vertical integration. While others are scrambling for chips, Musk is scrambling for electricity—and he’s starting at the very upstream end, with the foundry process.