Elon Musk’s SpaceX is hiring a trader to build and lead a natural gas trading team to meet the space company’s growing fuel and power needs.
Work Posts The role, which “focuses on physical and financial natural gas trading,” further underscores the importance of the power plant and manufacturing fuel in supporting the company’s chip manufacturing and space exploration ambitions.
SpaceX announced earlier this month that it plans to build its own gas-fired power plants to meet the electricity needs of the massive semiconductor manufacturing facility it is building in Texas Tesla Inc. Rising electricity demand from data centers and new factories has increased demand for new gas-fired power plants, and Musk has long been a fan of vertical integration.
Read more: SpaceX is building natural gas power plants for Texas Chip Factory
SpaceX also plans to build its own gas pipelines and even plans to drill for natural gas, according to the company’s president and chief operating officer, Gwynne Shotwell told CNBC in June. This represents “huge investments to develop our own fuel and bring it to the rocket,” she said.
SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket uses super-cooled methane – the main component of natural gas – combined with liquid oxygen as fuel.
Other well-known technology companies including Meta and OpenAI recently announced plans to enter electricity trading as their energy needs increase.
Read more: OpenAI is hiring a power trading manager for its data center portfolio
Posts on the role of SpaceX gas trading indicate that the company is based in either Cape Canaveral, Florida, or Starbase, Texas – rather than the traditional gas trading hubs of Houston, Calgary or Stamford, Connecticut. Remote work will not be taken into account, it says in the tenders.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.