Last week, SpaceX and Governor Jeff Landry announced Starbase Louisiana, a $100 billion commitment to build one of the largest infrastructure projects in history on roughly 125,000 acres at Pecan Island in Vermilion Parish. The greenfield investment includes five complexes, each with two Starship towers, with ten pads at the outset, and eventually more than a dozen towers supporting ~30 flights per day. The land will include not only a launch site, but also onsite propellant production, power generation, deep-water shipping, vehicle processing, employee housing, and likely an airport. Construction will begin in 2027, with first launches no earlier than 2029. Gwynne Shotwell was clear about the motivation: the company's existing infrastructure—two pads at Starbase in Texas and three soon-to-be in Florida—cannot support the ambitious plans for Starship’s flight cadence. For perspective on the scope of the project, Brazil’s 14 gigawatt (GW) Itaipu hydropower plant, the closest completed contemporary analog, cost ~$90 billion in today’s dollars, and California’s much delayed and uncompleted high-speed rail project is projected to cost ~$125 billion. @wintonARK details more in our recent newsletter ⬇️(ARK Invest)