On Friday, when SpaceX filed plans with the FCC for a network of one million satellite data centers, you might think Elon Musk was having a little fun with us. But after a week, it is clear that he is dead serious.
The most obvious step, of course, is the official merger between SpaceX and xAI that took place on Monday, officially mapping Musk’s position and AI plans in a way that makes more sense if there is some kind of integrated infrastructure project planned.
But even beyond integration, we’re starting to see the concept of orbital AI data clusters — essentially, networks of space-based computers — coming together in a real system. On Wednesday, the FCC accepted the filing and set out a plan seeking public comment. It’s a pro forma move in general, but FCC chairman Brendan Carr took the unusual step of sharing the file on X. Throughout his tenure as chairman, Carr has shown an eagerness to help Trump’s friends and punish his enemies — as long as Musk stays on Trump’s good side, the proposal is likely to pass without a hitch.
At the same time, Elon Musk has begun to make the argument for orbital data centers public. In a new episode of Stripe founder Patrick Collison’s “Cheeky Pint” podcast, which also featured guest Dwarkesh Patel, Musk made the basic case for moving most of our AI computing power into space. Basically, solar panels generate more energy in space, so you can reduce one of the main operating costs of data centers.
“It’s harder to measure on the ground than it is to measure in space,” Musk said on the podcast. Any solar panel will give you five times more power in space than on the ground, so it’s actually cheaper to do in space.”
Close listeners will notice that there is a gap in logic here! It’s true that solar panels generate more energy in space, but since energy isn’t the only cost of running a data center and solar panels aren’t the only way to power a data center, it doesn’t follow that it’s cheaper to do everything in orbit, as Patel noted in the podcast. Patel also raised concerns about servicing GPUs that fail during AI model training, but you’ll have to listen to the full episode for that.
In general, Musk did not give up, he marked the year 2028 as the year of the point of orbital data centers. “You can mark my words, in 36 months but probably closer to 30 months, the most economically compelling place to put AI will be space,” Musk said.
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He didn’t stop there. “Five years from now, my prediction is that we will annually launch and operate more AI in space than there are on Earth,” Musk continued.
In context, as of 2030, the global data center capacity will be approximately 200 GW, which is an infrastructure worth about three billion dollars if you put it down.
Of course, SpaceX makes its money by launching things into orbit, so this is all very easy for Musk – especially since SpaceX has an AI company attached to it. And with the new SpaceX-xAI conglomerate headed for an IPO in just a few months, you can expect to hear a lot more about orbital data centers in the coming months. With technology companies still pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into data center spending each year, there’s a real chance that not all the money will stay in the world.
