SpaceX's AI push: Elon Musk-led company offers 20% pay rise if employees relocate to Memphis or Southaven. Details here

Elon Musk-led SpaceX is offering employees a 20% pay hike to relocate to either Memphis, Tennessee, or Southaven, Mississippi, for six weeks as the company accelerates the expansion of its artificial intelligence data centres, Business Insider reported.

The move comes amid rising demand for SpaceX's computing capacity. On Tuesday, the company said its AI revenue, which includes earnings from renting computing capacity to companies such as Anthropic and Google, had climbed to more than $7 billion, accounting for nearly half of its quarterly revenue. 

SpaceX offers 20% pay hike for six-week assignments

An email sent to employees in early October and reviewed by Business Insider revealed that SpaceX is seeking volunteers for six-week assignments to help expand its supercomputer infrastructure. Employees who take up the assignments will receive additional compensation.

“We now need leaders — current and emerging — to guide teams and remove blockers as we bring more supercomputers online,” the email said.

The company clarified that applicants need not already be in managerial roles. While construction experience would be beneficial, “drive matters most”, according to the email.

To qualify, employees must be in good performance standing, with more than a year of service preferred. Those selected will receive a 20% premium on their base salary or hourly rate throughout the assignment, along with eligibility for “bonuses tied to program success”.

SpaceX will also take care of travel expenses and logistical arrangements for the temporary postings. The company did not respond to a request for comment, according to the report.

SpaceX steps up Colossus data-centre expansion

The temporary deployment, internally referred to as a “surge”, is designed to accelerate work on the Colossus 1 and Colossus 2 data centres in Memphis and Southaven.

Another email reviewed by Business Insider indicated that SpaceX had been offering a 20% salary premium for Memphis assignments since at least August. The initiative was originally scheduled to run until 31 December 2026, although the company could extend it.

This is not the first time SpaceX has offered financial incentives to move employees to key projects. CNBC reported in 2022 that the company had offered pay increases ranging from 10% to 25% to workers willing to relocate temporarily to Texas to support its Starship rocket programme.

AI computing drives SpaceX's revenue growth

SpaceX's Colossus data centres were initially developed by AI start-up xAI, which was folded into SpaceX in February. The facilities have since assumed a central role in the company's computing business, including providing processing capacity to external customers.

On Tuesday, SpaceX reported that its AI business generated $7.56 billion in revenue in the third quarter, accounting for more than half of its total revenue of $14.6 billion. The business includes revenue from renting computing capacity to companies such as Anthropic and Google, as well as from AI products and services including Grok and X.

Speaking during an analyst call, Musk said SpaceX was being “hounded relentlessly” by companies looking to secure access to its computing resources. He added that demand was so strong that the company could have rented out its available capacity several times over.

The company has also reassigned senior executives to support the expansion. A former Starship executive was put in charge of building computing capacity in Memphis.

Elon Musk targets 10 gigawatts of additional capacity

Musk is personally overseeing the expansion as SpaceX works towards adding 10 gigawatts of capacity. He told investors that he has been devoting a significant portion of his time to the Memphis operations. “I've been spending, personally, a lot of my time in Memphis, often four days a week,” he said.