Musk's SpaceX bypasses turbine bottleneck, sparks pollution fears

elon musk's spacex is investing in a secret foundry in bastrop, texas, to produce blades and vanes for gas turbines, a critical component in natural gas power generation. by doing in-house casting, spacex aims to accelerate the production of gas turbines by up to 18 months, which could help alleviate one of the biggest bottlenecks in ai infrastructure development. however, this move also raises concerns about pollution from gas turbines, which are already drawing federal lawsuits and health research scrutiny. the ai industry's growing demand for power, driven in part by gpu shortages, is driving the need for faster turbine production, but this may come at the cost of increased emissions of smog-forming compounds and hazardous chemicals.