INTRO: As artificial intelligence drives the need for vastly more computing storage and processing power, interest in space-based data centers has spiked.
Although several startup companies, such as Starcloud, have begun to address this problem, the idea has also attracted the interest of tech barons. In May, it emerged that former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt acquired Relativity Space due to his interest in space-based data centers. Then, earlier this month, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos predicted that gigawatt-scale data centers will be built in space within the next 10 to 20 years.
Now, Elon Musk, whose SpaceX owns and operates significantly more space-based infrastructure than any other company or country in the world, has also expressed interest in the technology.
After Ars wrote a story on the potential of autonomous assembly to construct large data centers in space, Musk responded on X by saying that Starlink satellites could be used for this purpose. “Simply scaling up Starlink V3 satellites, which have high speed laser links would work,” he said on the social media site X. “SpaceX will be doing this.”
Musk’s interest in space-based data centers significantly raises the profile of the nascent industry. Proponents of the idea say the advantages are clear: free, limitless power from the Sun and none of the messy environmental costs of building these facilities on Earth (where opposition is starting to grow). Critics say it is economically impractical to build these facilities in space and that supporters underestimate the technology needed to make it work.
SpaceX’s Starlink constellation has already defied some of this conventional wisdom by delivering high-speed broadband to millions of customers around the world while making a profit. So if Musk believes the Starlink architecture can be applied to data centers, it will be difficult for the industry to ignore... (MORE - detail)
Elon says that it is inevitable that AI will move into space sooner (within five years) rather than later. Here he is yesterday with Jensen Huang explaining why he thinks so -
Satellites with localized AI compute, where just the results are beamed back from low-latency, sun-synchronous orbit, will be the lowest cost way to generate AI bitstreams in <3 years.
And by far the fastest way to scale within 4 years, because easy sources of electrical power are already hard to find on Earth. 1 megaton/year of satellites with 100kW per satellite yields 100GW of AI added per year with no operating or maintenance cost, connecting via high-bandwidth lasers to the Starlink constellation.
The level beyond that is constructing satellite factories on the Moon and using a mass driver (electromagnetic railgun) to accelerate AI satellites to lunar escape velocity without the need for rockets. That scales to >100TW/year of AI and enables non-trivial progress towards becoming a Kardashev II civilization."
YazataDec 11, 2025 03:27 AM (This post was last modified: Dec 11, 2025 03:55 AM by Yazata.)
Yep, Sabine's right. Elon's going crazy again!
Eric Berger just published an article that explains Elon's plans and tied them together with SpaceX going public. And Elon just wrote on X that Eric's article is accurate!
"The Wall Street Journal and The Information first reported about a possible IPO last Friday, and Bloomberg followed that up on Tuesday evening with a report suggesting the company would target a $1.5 trillion valuation.... for investors, space is the final frontier.
...The decision is surprising because Musk has, for so long, resisted going public with SpaceX...
A significant shift in recent years has been the rise of artificial intelligence, which Musk has been involved in since 2015, when he co-founded OpenAI...
How can SpaceX play in this space? In the near term, the company plans to develop a modified version of the Starlink satellite to serve as a foundation for building data centers in space...
...SpaceX is expected to have in the neighborhood of $22 to $24 billion in revenue next year. That is a lot of money—it’s on par with NASA’s annual budget, for example, and SpaceX can deploy its capital far, far more efficiently than the government can. So the company will be able to accomplish a lot. But with a large infusion of cash, SpaceX will be able to go much faster...
Abhi Tripathi, a long-time SpaceX employee who is now director of mission operations at the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory, believes that once Musk realized Starlink satellites could be architected into a distributed network of data centers, the writing was on the wall...
Musk also believes that a larger and more financially robust SpaceX is necessary to undertake the settling of Mars. He understands that NASA will not pay for this...
...Taking SpaceX public now is a bet that he can marshal the resources now, during his lifetime, to make Mars City One a reality....
YazataFeb 28, 2026 05:13 AM (This post was last modified: Feb 28, 2026 05:42 AM by Yazata.)
Bloomberg is reporting that SpaceX is weighing going public (IPO) as early as March, targeting a valuation above $1.75 trillion.
If Elon owns something like ~40% of SpaceX, that would translate to $700 billion! Tesla is valued at ~$1.5 trillion. Elon owns ~20% of Tesla, so the SpaceX IPO should put him at a net worth of approximately $1 trillion dollars! Which would make him the world's first trillionaire!
People are pointing out that many/most SpaceX workers, part of whose pay consists of stock options, stand to suddenly become millionaires when the company IPOs.
(While the democrats and the labor unions go on about how terrible the working conditions at SpaceX are, because it's non-union.)
(SpaceX photo of the first v.3 ship along with the new millionaires that built it.)
Something similar already happened at Nvidia, where as of July 2024 36.6% of Nvidia employees were worth more than $20 million! 75.7% of them were worth more than $1 million!
It's the Silicon Valley way! Go to work for a promising startup, work 12 hour days, and get filthy rich if the company succeeds.
As I understand it .. selling Spacex would convert a notional value into real dollars .. 40% share = $700 billion for Musk. As Spacex has no great value without Musk he can immediately demand a 40% share in New Spacex so $700 billion + $700 billion = 1,400 billion .. which looks like a good deal.
(Feb 28, 2026 05:13 AM)Yazata Wrote: People are pointing out that many/most SpaceX workers, part of whose pay consists of stock options, stand to suddenly become millionaires when the company IPOs.
(While the democrats and the labor unions go on about how terrible the working conditions at SpaceX are, because it's non-union.)
From the paperwork filed, it looks like the SpaceX IPO will happen this month, in June.
And estimates are that thousands of SpaceX employees will suddenly be worth more than $1 million, and ~400 of them (mostly ones who have been with SpaceX since the very early days) will be worth more than $100 million.
Elon is proud that most of these aren't executives in expensive suits. They include welders and pipe benders and others from the skilled trades that are suddenly so in demand these days.
Quote:(SpaceX photo of the first v.3 ship along with the new millionaires that built it.)
(Jun 2, 2026 07:50 AM)Yazata Wrote: From the paperwork filed, it looks like the SpaceX IPO will happen this month, in June.
I'm hearing that SpaceX begins trading on NASDAQ on June 12 (next Friday).
Quote:And estimates are that thousands of SpaceX employees will suddenly be worth more than $1 million, and ~400 of them (mostly ones who have been with SpaceX since the very early days) will be worth more than $100 million.
Elon is proud that most of these aren't executives in expensive suits. They include welders and pipe benders and others from the skilled trades that are suddenly so in demand these days.
This 27 year old woman is one of the SpaceX instant millionaires. She worked for several years on one of the SpaceX recovery ships off the Florida coast catching boosters and payload fairings. And part of her pay was SpaceX stock, a common practice in Silicon Valley but almost unknown in the offshore services industry, where workers often don't even get benefits.
Solar Power System:
• 150 kW solar array
• 250 W/m²
• SpaceX-manufactured solar technology from Bastrop, Texas
Architecture:
• Centralized compute module
• Large deployable solar arrays
• Deployable liquid-radiator thermal management system
• AI-focused compute satellite design ("AI-1 satellite")
Elon says: "The AI satellite is much simpler than a Starlink satellite. The AI satellite is essentially a lot of solar cells, you still need some laser links, but you don't have all of the super complex antennas that you have on a Starlink satellite. The easier one to design for is the AI satellite. It's bigger. A lot of this is technology we've already made with the Starlink V3 satellites."
Nov 2, 2025 07:10 PM
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