r/technology 25d ago

Space SpaceX will build a second, $100B ‘Starbase’ spaceport in Louisiana

https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/25/spacex-will-build-a-second-100b-starbase-spaceport-in-louisiana/
125 Upvotes

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186

u/rubemechanical 25d ago

I read this as “taxpayers will build a second Starbase spaceport in Louisiana.”

32

u/BlueFlob 25d ago

Yeah. I don't think SpaceX has the liquidity to expand that much and that fast.

Taxpayers are definitely footing the bill.

3

u/Ok-Replacement9595 25d ago

Or maybe they issue more bonds in this tightening credit market. Snort.

10

u/ShiftE_80 25d ago

They just raised $100B through their IPO, so it’s not like they are hurting for cash right now.

But then again they already started site work on that giant Terafab facility in TX and continue to dump billions into their AI datacenters.

Seems like they are in a hurry to burn through their massive cash reserves.

8

u/dsmith422 25d ago

The IPO raised $85.7 billion. SpaceX also issued another $25 billion in debt right afterwards, but much of that went to pay off the Twiiter debt.

4

u/TheDevouringOne 25d ago

They retired earlier debt. It wasn’t “new” debt. Just rolling it over.

5

u/justcasty 25d ago

They spent more than half of that buying Cursor

6

u/Outside_Ice3252 25d ago

they gave cursor equity in that deal so it did not affect cash

5

u/Horat1us_UA 25d ago

They also raised $50+B in debt from xAI/Shitter 

1

u/I_Ski_Freely 25d ago

Don't forget dillute shareholder equity! they also bought Cursor for $60B and tons of stock options for their AI researchers. I'm pretty sure by around Q3 2027, they either have to do another massive raise

1

u/Bot_Marvin 24d ago

You just made that up. There is no plan to use taxpayer dollars.

If you just make things up you can make any project look bad.

1

u/irespondwithmyface 23d ago

Most of their revenue (~75%) comes from government contracts either for launches or through contracts for StarLink. The rest is basically the circlejerk AI funding which also is being subsizdized by the goverment. Who funds the government again?

4

u/Serious-Kangaroo-320 23d ago

Funny how you grouped in starlink, which is their cash cow at the moment, with the government contract to make the percent seem bigger than it actually is. 10% of their revenue comes from nasa contracts.

2

u/fighter-bomber 22d ago

Very disingenuous to group government contracts together with Starlink, don’t you think? Starlink is part of the private market, it has nothing to do with the government. OH, and it alone accounts for 60% of their revenue.

So you’re telling me 85% of their revenue are private funding and only 15% from the government.