SemiAnalysis Says SpaceXSI Finished Its MiniHard Data Center in About 5 Months, About Half the Usual Build Time
BREAKING: SpaceXSI completes MiniHard construction in just ~5 months, with Gun Range targeting a ~4-month build. According to SemiAnalysis, SpaceXSI is roughly halving construction timelines while most comparable projects face 8–12 month builds. • MiniHard: Construction finished in approximately 5 months. • Gun Range: The new site just south of the Tennessee–Mississippi state line is targeting approximately 4 months of construction. • Colossus 1: Its first retrofit delivered 150 MW of capacity in 122 days. • Colossus 2: A subsequent retrofit delivered 210 MW in just 91 days. • Project SPAM: Work started October 5, with the first capacity targeted for December. • Massive expansion: SemiAnalysis projects the Memphis–Mississippi campus will grow from 0.4 GW of IT capacity in January to 2.4 GW by the end of 2026. That would be a sixfold increase in one year. • Five major projects: The expansion spans Macrohard, MiniHard, Macroharder, Project SPAM and Gun Range. • Tesla powering the scale: SemiAnalysis reports 1,377 Tesla Megapacks across Colossus 2, providing nearly 6 GWh of battery storage. The construction timelines and capacity forecasts are SemiAnalysis estimates, with future milestones still targets. Elon Musk’s teams are bringing extraordinary speed and scale to the infrastructure powering AI.
Context
If the timelines hold, SpaceXSI would be building large AI data centers in about half the time of typical projects, which would change how fast compute can come online.
DogeDesigner posted on November 14, citing SemiAnalysis, that SpaceXSI had finished MiniHard construction in about 5 months, and that a new Gun Range site just south of the Tennessee and Mississippi state line is targeting about 4 months of construction. The post says SemiAnalysis estimates SpaceXSI is roughly halving construction timelines while most comparable projects face 8 to 12 month builds, and it lists other figures for Colossus 1, Colossus 2, Project SPAM, a projected rise from 0.4 GW to 2.4 GW of IT capacity at the Memphis Mississippi campus by the end of 2026, and 1,377 Tesla Megapacks at Colossus 2. SemiAnalysis posted the same findings in an official thread at 7:36 PM ET on November 13, but that thread had about 53,000 views on the lead post, under the 100,000 view bar for a lead, so this story uses the widely viewed secondhand post and attributes the figures to SemiAnalysis.
Deep dive
DogeDesigner posted on November 14 that SpaceXSI had completed MiniHard construction in about 5 months, with Gun Range targeting about 4 months, "according to SemiAnalysis." The post says SemiAnalysis is the source for a claim that SpaceXSI is roughly halving construction timelines while most comparable projects face 8 to 12 month builds. It also repeats SemiAnalysis figures that Colossus 1's first retrofit delivered 150 MW in 122 days, that a later Colossus 2 retrofit delivered 210 MW in 91 days, that Project SPAM started on October 5 with first capacity targeted for December, that the Memphis Mississippi campus is projected to grow from 0.4 GW of IT capacity in January to 2.4 GW by the end of 2026 across Macrohard, MiniHard, Macroharder, Project SPAM and Gun Range, and that SemiAnalysis counts 1,377 Tesla Megapacks across Colossus 2, providing nearly 6 GWh of battery storage. The post itself notes that the construction timelines and capacity forecasts are SemiAnalysis estimates, with future milestones still targets.
Those figures match an official SemiAnalysis thread posted at 7:36 PM ET on November 13, which is 12:36 AM UTC on November 14. SemiAnalysis wrote that MiniHard finished construction in about 5 months and that Gun Range, just south of the state line, will take about 4 months, which it called, to its knowledge, the fastest greenfield datacenter ever built at scale. The same thread and the related newsletter also discuss power, including a TVA grid connection that SemiAnalysis says covers about 1.2 GW for Macrohard and MiniHard, and a possible shortfall of around 300 MW once mobile turbines at Southaven retire. The newsletter cites local filings that Macrohard (700 MW) and MiniHard (450 MW) have requested service.
The official SemiAnalysis lead post in that thread had about 53,000 views in this scan, under the 100,000 view bar, and no official SpaceXSI post on MiniHard with 100,000 or more views was found. This story therefore keeps the widely viewed DogeDesigner post as the lead and attributes the claims to SemiAnalysis. SpaceXSI has not confirmed the timelines in the posts reviewed here.
What to expect next
Watch for official SpaceXSI confirmation that MiniHard is finished and entering service, and for whether Gun Range and Project SPAM meet the 4 month and December targets. Grid connection dates, including the substation SemiAnalysis says is scheduled by December 31, 2026, will show whether the capacity forecasts are on track. Satellite or permit updates, and any Tesla Megapack filings, would also test the campus capacity path from 0.4 GW to 2.4 GW.