Elon Musk is getting serious about orbital data centers

On Friday, erstwhile SpaceX filed plans with the FCC for a million-satellite information halfway network, you mightiness person thought Elon Musk was having a spot of amusive with us. But a week later, it is wide that helium is dormant serious. 

The astir evident step, of course, is the ceremonial merger betwixt SpaceX and xAI that went guardant connected Monday, officially drafting unneurotic Musk’s abstraction and AI ventures successful a mode that makes a batch much consciousness if there’s immoderate benignant of associated infrastructure task planned. 

But adjacent beyond the merger, we’re starting to spot the thought of orbital AI information clusters — essentially, networks of computers operating successful abstraction — cohere into an existent plan. On Wednesday, the FCC accepted the filing and acceptable a docket seeking nationalist comment. It’s a pro forma measurement normally, but FCC president Brendan Carr took the antithetic measurement of sharing the filing connected X. Throughout his tenure arsenic chairman, Carr has shown himself eager to assistance Trump’s friends and punish his enemies — truthful arsenic agelong arsenic Musk stays connected Trump’s bully side, the connection is apt to sail done without issue.

At the aforesaid time, Elon Musk has started to soma retired the statement for orbital information centers successful public. On a caller episode of Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison’s podcast “Cheeky Pint,” which besides featured impermanent Dwarkesh Patel, Musk laid retired the basal lawsuit for moving astir of our AI computing powerfulness into space. Essentially, star panels nutrient much powerfulness successful space, truthful you tin chopped down connected 1 of the main operating expenses for information centers.

“It’s harder to standard connected the crushed than it is to standard successful space,” Musk said successful the podcast. “Any fixed star sheet is going to springiness you astir 5 times much powerfulness successful abstraction than connected the ground, truthful it’s really overmuch cheaper to bash successful space.”

Close listeners volition enactment that determination is simply a spot of a spread successful the logic here! It’s existent that star panels nutrient much powerfulness successful space, but since powerfulness isn’t the lone outgo successful operating a information halfway and star panels aren’t the lone mode to powerfulness a information center, it doesn’t travel that it’s cheaper to bash the full happening successful orbit, arsenic Patel noted successful the podcast. Patel besides raised concerns astir servicing GPUs that neglect during AI exemplary training, but you’ll person to perceive to the afloat occurrence for that.

Overall, Musk was undeterred, marking 2028 arsenic a tipping constituent twelvemonth for orbital information centers. “You tin people my words, successful 36 months but astir apt person to 30 months, the astir economically compelling spot to enactment AI volition beryllium space,” Musk said.

He didn’t halt there. “Five years from now, my prediction is we volition motorboat and beryllium operating each twelvemonth much AI successful abstraction than the cumulative full connected Earth,” Musk continued.

For context, arsenic of 2030, planetary information halfway capableness volition beryllium an estimated 200 GW, which is astir a trillion dollars’ worthy of infrastructure erstwhile you’re conscionable putting it connected the ground.

Of course, SpaceX makes its wealth by launching things into orbit, truthful each this is beauteous convenient for Musk — peculiarly present that SpaceX has an AI institution attached to it. And with the caller SpaceX-xAI conglomerate headed for an IPO successful conscionable a fewer months, you tin expect to perceive a batch much astir orbital information centers successful the months ahead. With tech companies still pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into information halfway spending each year, there’s a existent accidental that not each the wealth volition stay earthbound.