SpaceX plans to build a $100 billion spaceport in Louisiana

NEW: SpaceX plans to build a $100 billion spaceport in Louisiana, establishing 'Starbase LA' in Vermillion Parish to support thousands of launches annually and bring around 10,000 jobs.

SpaceX is dropping a hundred billion dollars on a new spaceport in Louisiana.

Starbase LA lands in Vermillion Parish, and the pitch is enormous. Thousands of launches a year, around ten thousand jobs, and the main home for Starship, the biggest rocket ever built. Elon Musk says the site search took seven years, and investors clearly like the answer, shares rose about two and a half percent on the news. Here's the operation they're scaling up.

Now the part Louisiana should read twice. SpaceX is promising a historic coastal restoration, bringing the marsh back around the facility. Which is a very specific promise from a company that got fined for Clean Water Act violations in Texas, after debris from an exploding launchpad landed in an endangered species nesting site.

So the deal is ten thousand jobs, one fragile wetland, and a two trillion dollar valuation riding on Starship actually working. Louisiana just bought a front row seat.

This is Liu Yang, reporting for HIT.