SpaceX purchased $295 million worth of Tesla Megapacks in the second quarter of 2026 to power its Colossus AI data centers in the Greater Memphis region, according to the company's Q2 10-Q filing.
The battery purchase represents a significant increase in SpaceX's energy infrastructure spending. Through the first half of 2026, SpaceX has spent $329 million on Megapacks, meaning Q2 accounted for roughly 90 percent of that annual total. Megapacks are Tesla's largest battery product, with each unit storing 13.5 megawatt-hours of energy.
A single megapack costs roughly $1 million to $1.5 million, meaning SpaceX's Q2 purchase likely comprised somewhere between 200 and 300 units. The batteries serve as backup power during grid outages and can smooth demand spikes. Data center operations cannot tolerate interruptions.
Colossus comprises facilities in Memphis, Tennessee and Southaven, Mississippi. SpaceX has framed Colossus as infrastructure dedicated to training and running inference for xAI, the AI company owned by Elon Musk. The data center complex has grown significantly since its launch in 2024, with construction continuing through 2026.
Energy costs and grid stability have become the primary bottleneck for AI companies scaling inference capacity. Major hyperscalers including Meta, Google, and Amazon have all announced plans to purchase or develop nuclear power capacity, while others have negotiated long-term renewable contracts at scale. Battery backup systems do not replace grid power but allow operators to absorb demand peaks without triggering curtailment clauses or paying premiums for peak-hour electricity.
Tesla Megapack deployments have accelerated broadly this year as utilities and industrial operators face summer demand surges. The company has not disclosed aggregate Megapack sales figures for 2026, but announced in July that it delivered record battery storage capacity in Q2 across all products, without specifying volumes by customer.
SpaceX's Q2 battery spending exceeded its Q1 outlay by a significant margin. Battery infrastructure is now a material capital item for the company alongside compute hardware and real estate acquisition.
