Elon Musk is getting serious about orbital data centers

When SpaceX filed plans with the FCC on Friday for a data center network with millions of satellites, you might have thought Elon Musk was having a little fun with us. But a week later it is clear that he is serious.

The most obvious step, of course, is the formal merger between SpaceX and xAI that took place on Monday, officially bringing together Musk’s space and AI ventures in a way that makes much more sense if some sort of joint infrastructure project is planned.

But even after the merger, we’re starting to see the idea of ​​orbital AI data clusters – essentially networks of computers operating in space – coalesce into an actual plan. On Wednesday, the FCC accepted the filing and set a schedule for public comment. Normally this is a pro forma move, but FCC Chairman Brendan Carr took the unusual step sharing the submission on X. During his tenure as chairman, Carr has proven himself He is eager to help Trump’s friends and punish his enemies – so as long as Musk remains on Trump’s good side, the proposal will likely pass without any problems.

At the same time, Elon Musk has begun to publicly make the case for orbital data centers. On one new episode In Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison’s “Cheeky Pint” podcast, which also featured guest Dwarkesh Patel, Musk laid the groundwork for moving most of our AI computing power to space. Essentially, solar panels produce more power in space, helping you save on one of the most important data center operating costs.

“It’s harder to scale on the ground than in space,” Musk said in the podcast. “Each solar panel gives you about five times more energy in space than on the ground, so it is actually much cheaper in space.”

Good listeners will notice that there is a bit of a gap in the logic here! It’s true that solar panels produce more energy in space, but since energy isn’t the only cost in operating 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 maintaining GPUs that fail during AI model training, but you’ll have to listen to the full episode for that.

Overall, Musk was undeterred, marking 2028 as a tipping year for orbital data centers. “Mark my words: In 36 months, but probably closer to 30 months, the most economically attractive place to put AI will be in space,” Musk said.

He didn’t stop there. “Five years from now, my prediction is that we will launch and deploy more AI in space each year than the cumulative total on Earth,” Musk continued.

For context, from 2030 onwards, global data center capacity will be the same an estimated 200 GWwhich amounts to about a trillion dollars of infrastructure if you just put it on the ground.

Of course, SpaceX makes its money by putting things into orbit, so this is all pretty handy for Musk – especially now that SpaceX has an AI company attached to it. And with the new SpaceX-xAI conglomerate heading for an IPO in just a few months, expect to hear a lot more about orbital data centers in the coming months. With tech companies still pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into data center spend each year, there’s a real chance that not all the money will remain earthbound.