SpaceX has recently made significant changes to the leadership of its data center construction team, replacing several key executives with personnel drawn primarily from the company's rocket and satellite internet operations. Those familiar with the matter indicate this move stems from persistent issues with civil engineering and operational reliability at the company's existing facilities in Tennessee and Mississippi.
During the early construction phase, SpaceX's AI division (SpaceXAI) prioritized speed, with some facilities operating for months without backup cooling and power systems, thereby increasing the risk of downtime. In terms of personnel changes, Wesley Salandro, former vice president of Falcon rocket and Dragon spacecraft production, along with Logan McConnell, former director of launch site product support operations at Starbase, have joined the AI infrastructure team.
Additionally, SpaceX has brought in an engineer from Neuralink to assist with civil engineering work and continues to actively recruit for related positions. Meanwhile, several key members of the data center team have recently departed: Jake Palmer, who oversaw physical infrastructure, left at the end of July (having joined in September 2025), along with Zach Wells and Pablo Mendoza. Previously, Brent Mayo, who was responsible for site construction, moved to OpenAI, and Liz Balke, who joined from Tesla's Dojo supercomputer project, has since gone to Anthropic.
This personnel turbulence has also heightened uncertainty around the timeline for constructing new data centers. Aside from the Memphis hub, expansion plans in Texas and other locations have faced multiple delays. Despite these challenges, SpaceX continues to tout its rapid construction cost advantage as a core competitive strength heading into its highly anticipated June IPO, and plans to maintain aggressive investment in AI infrastructure. As of June, its online computing capacity stood at approximately 1.4 gigawatts, with expectations to exceed 2 gigawatts by year-end; Elon Musk has stated that this figure will increase substantially by the end of 2027.