SpaceX spent $295 million on Tesla Megapack batteries in the second quarter of 2026, bringing its purchases to $329 million in the first half, according to financial filings reported by CNBC. The battery energy storage systems are being installed at SpaceXAI's Colossus data centers in the Greater Memphis area, where some of the world's largest AI compute clusters run.
The purchases deepen the interlocking relationship between Elon Musk's two trillion-dollar companies. Last year, before SpaceX went public, it bought $506 million in Megapacks from Tesla, along with $131 million in Cybertrucks. The two firms have a history of related-party transactions, commingling resources and sharing personnel.
Megapacks are utility-scale batteries used to prevent blackouts and smooth power from intermittent sources like solar and wind; Tesla's newer Megablocks combine four Megapacks around a single transformer. But batteries are only part of the picture: SpaceXAI has also installed dozens of natural-gas turbines at Colossus, and their emissions and noise have triggered community backlash in Tennessee and a lawsuit from the NAACP.
On SpaceX's second-quarter earnings call — its first since going public — Musk said the company plans to expand AI infrastructure rapidly. "Our tentative target is to actually have 20 gigawatts of power and cooling live online by the end of next year," he said, estimating that even with slippage the company would likely reach close to 15 gigawatts at the power-plant level.
The battery bill is a window into the sheer scale of AI's energy appetite. Competitors in the storage market, according to research by Wood Mackenzie, include China's Sungrow, BYD and CATL, Korea's LG, and US-based Fluence.
