SpaceX spent $295 million on Tesla Megapack battery storage units in the second quarter, bringing its total spending on the devices to $329 million so far this year, according to the company’s latest earnings report. The purchases highlight the deepening ties between Elon Musk’s companies, as Musk serves as CEO and largest shareholder of SpaceX while also leading Tesla. His AI venture, xAI, merged with SpaceX earlier this year after previously acquiring the social platform X in 2025.
The Megapacks are expected to support xAI’s data centers, which power its AI models. Before merging with SpaceX, xAI had purchased $430 million worth of Megapacks for its facilities, though its first-quarter 2026 purchases totaled just $34 million. SpaceX’s filing also disclosed $131 million spent on Tesla Cybertrucks at retail price as of December 2025.
While xAI has relied heavily on natural gas, including dozens of unpermitted turbines at a Mississippi site near its Colossus data center, large batteries remain essential to AI infrastructure. Megapacks provide near-instant backup power and help manage the fluctuating electricity demands of training and running AI models, smoothing out usage spikes that can otherwise strain local utilities or overwhelm on-site generators, ultimately lowering operating costs while maintaining consistent performance.
