SpaceX plans to build a $100 billion spaceport in Louisiana

Elon Musk is continuing his push into the Southern U.S. with SpaceX, his aerospace and tech conglomerate, planning a $100 billion new launch facility in Louisiana.

In a joint statement, the Louisiana Economic Development office said that SpaceX will establish its Starbase, Louisiana in Vermillion Parish to, “support thousands of launches annually.”

Shares of SpaceX rose about 2.5% on Tuesday after the announcement.

Once built, Starbase, LA will serve as the main launch facility for Starship, SpaceX’s in-development rocket that is the largest ever built or flown, and which is designed to be fully re-usable.

Musk has ambitions to massively expand SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network, to launch orbital data centers, and someday colonize Mars. Those ambitions, and justification for SpaceX’s nearly $2 trillion market cap, hinge on the success of Starship.

SpaceX said, in a video posted to its website on Tuesday, that the search for a site to build launch pads and have access to ample fuel for its operations took about 7 years. Musk said in the video that the company would bring “probably 10,000 really exciting jobs” to Louisiana with the spaceport.

In the Tuesday announcement, SpaceX said it would work on a “historic coastal restoration” in Louisiana, in partnership with the state to “bring the marsh back” and ensure the wetlands around its new facility will have “storm protection.”

Previously, SpaceX has faced community backlash, lawsuits and fines following environmental violations at its first Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, in the company town now known as Starbase.

In its first test flight of Starship in April 2023 in Texas, energy from the rocket caused SpaceX’s concrete launchpad to explode, and its spacecraft to blow up in mid-air. Chunks of concrete were flung into a nesting and migration site important to some endangered species nearby and a fire chewed through around 4 acres of Boca Chica State Park Land south of the Texas launchpad.

In 2024, SpaceX was also found to have violated the Clean Water Act at the Texas launch facility by repeatedly releasing pollutants into or near bodies of water in Texas, a state agency said in a notice of violation focused on its water deluge system.

SpaceX’s work in Louisiana follows Musk’s move from California into Texas, Tennessee and Mississippi. The company said Louisiana was its fourth launch site.

Musk’s AI venture, now known as SpaceXAI, built out its Colossus data centers and a power plant in Greater Memphis. Before that, Musk relocated the headquarters of his automaker, Tesla, from California to Austin, Texas. Tesla now operates a massive vehicle assembly plant in Austin and is testing its driverless, Robotaxi service and Cybercab vehicles in the region.

Tesla and SpaceX, in partnership with Intel, also plan to build a massive AI chip factory in Grimes County, Texas.

CNBC’s Kif Leswing contributed to this story.