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on Friday, when SpaceX submitted plans to the FCC. For a data center network of one million satellitesMaybe you thought Elon Musk was having a little fun with us. But after a week, it became clear that he was very serious.
The most obvious step, of course, is the formal merger between SpaceX and xAI I applied on Mondayofficially combines Musk’s space and AI projects in a way that would make more sense if there were some sort of joint infrastructure project planned.
But even after the merger, we’re starting to see the idea of orbital AI data sets — essentially networks of computers operating in space — cohering into an actual plan. On Wednesday, the FCC accepted the request and set a timeline for public comment. It’s usually a formality, but FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has taken an unusual step Share the file on X. Throughout his tenure as president, Carr showed himself Eager to help Trump’s friends and punish his enemies – So as long as Musk stays on Trump’s good side, the proposal will likely go ahead without problems.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk has begun making the case for creating orbital data centers in public places. On a New episode In Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison’s podcast “Cheeky Pint,” which also featured guest Dwarkesh Patel, Musk laid out the basic case for moving most of our AI computing power into space. Essentially, solar panels produce more energy in space, so they can cut down on one of the major operating expenses of data centers.
“It’s harder to expand on Earth than it is to expand in space,” Musk said on the podcast. “Any solar panel will give you five times more power in space than on Earth, so it’s much cheaper to do it in space.”
Close listeners will notice that there is a bit of a gap in logic here! It’s true that solar panels produce more energy in space, but since energy isn’t the only cost in running a data center and solar panels aren’t the only way to run a data center, that doesn’t mean it’s cheaper to do everything in orbit, Patel pointed out on the podcast. Patel also raised concerns about serving GPUs failing during AI model training, but you’ll have to listen to the full episode for that.
Overall, Musk is undeterred, viewing 2028 as a turning point for orbital data centers. “You can mark my words, within 36 months, but maybe closer to 30 months, space will be the most economically compelling place to put AI,” Musk said.
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He didn’t stop there. “Five years from now, I predict we will be launching and operating more AIs in space each year than the cumulative total on Earth,” Musk continued.
For context, as of 2030, global data center capacity will be An estimated 200 gigawattswhich is about a trillion dollars worth of infrastructure when you put it on the ground.
Of course, SpaceX makes its money by launching things into orbit, so this is all very convenient for Musk — especially now that SpaceX has an artificial intelligence company associated with it. And with the new SpaceX-xAI portfolio headed to IPO in just a few months, you can expect to hear more about orbital data centers in the coming months. With technology companies It still pumps hundreds of billions of dollars into data center spending every yearThere is a real possibility that not all the money will stay in the ground.