Elon Musk is pushing to build data centers in space. But they won’t solve AI’s power problems anytime soon |
Elon Musk is pushing to build data centers in space. But they won’t solve AI’s power problems anytime soon
Even as technology companies are projected to spend more than $5 trillion globally on earth-based data centers by the end of the decade, Elon Musk is arguing the future of AI computing power lies in space—powered by solar energy—and that the economics and engineering to make it work could align within a few years.
Over the past three weeks, SpaceX has filed plans with the Federal Communications Commission for what amounts to a million-satellite data-center network. Musk has also said he plans to merge his AI startup, xAI, with SpaceX to pursue orbital data centers. And at an all-hands meeting last week, he told xAI employees the company would ultimately need a factory on the moon to build AI satellites—along with a massive catapult to launch them into space.
“The lowest-cost place to put AI will be in space, and that will be true within two years, maybe three at the latest,” Musk said at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos this January.
Musk is not alone in floating the idea. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has said Google is exploring “moonshot” concepts for data centers in space later this decade. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has warned that the industry is “running out of electricity” and has discussed space-based infrastructure as a potential long-term solution. And Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos has said orbital data centers could become the next step in space ventures designed to benefit earth.
Still, while Musk and some other bulls argue that space-based AI could become cost-effective within a few years, many experts say anything approaching meaningful scale remains decades away—especially as the bulk of AI investment continues to flow into terrestrial infrastructure. That includes Musk’s own Colossus supercomputer in Memphis, which analysts estimate will cost tens of billions of dollars.
They emphasize that while limited orbital computing is feasible, constraints around power generation, heat dissipation, launch logistics, and cost make space a poor substitute for earth-based data centers anytime soon.
Mounting pressure to provide power for AI
The renewed interest reflects mounting pressure on the industry to........