Elon Musk is moving his artificial intelligence ambitions into orbit, announcing on Monday that SpaceX has acquired xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence startup.
“Global electricity demand for AI simply cannot be met with terrestrial solutions, even in the near term, without imposing hardship on communities and the environment,” Musk wrote. “In the long term, space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale. To harness even a millionth of our Sun’s energy would require over a million times more energy than our civilization currently uses.”
Musk’s proposed solution is a constellation of up to one million satellites designed to function as orbital data centers, shifting large portions of AI compute infrastructure beyond Earth’s physical constraints.
“My estimate is that within two to three years, the lowest cost way to generate AI compute will be in space,” he said. “This cost-efficiency alone will enable innovative companies to forge ahead in training their AI models and processing data at unprecedented speeds and scales, accelerating breakthroughs in our understanding of physics and invention of technologies to benefit humanity.”
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Decrypt.
