SpaceX's vertical empire: from rockets to Colossus AI compute powering Grok
XFreeze · x · 2026-09-27
A thread maps SpaceX's vertically integrated footprint across the US:
- Starbase, TX: HQ plus Starship/Super Heavy development, testing and launch
- Hawthorne, CA: Falcon 9/Heavy, Dragon, Merlin and Raptor engines, Starlink terminals
- McGregor, TX: engine qualification and post-flight testing
- Redmond, WA: Starlink satellite manufacturing including phased-array antennas and laser links
- Bastrop, TX: mass production of Starlink hardware, expanding into gateway antennas and AI compute satellites
- Florida's Space Coast: launches, booster recovery and expanding Starship infrastructure
- Memphis, TN & Southaven, MS: the Colossus and Colossus II AI compute sites powering Grok training and inference
- Palo Alto, CA: SpaceXAI engineering teams designing and training Grok
Plus a recovery fleet, autonomous droneships and 400+ Starlink ground stations. The author argues SpaceX now owns nearly the entire stack from rockets to a global comms network to massive AI compute.
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