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Elon Musk said the same thing. Space will be the most efficient place for AI compute. Earth systems are limited by cooling and power. For a 2 ton GPU rack 1.95 ton is cooling mass. Space provides 24/7 solar, no need for batteries, and easier cooling.

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88,821 views • 9 months ago •via X (Twitter)

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$This is the next big plan for SpaceX: AI Data Centers in Space. • To achieve even a small fraction of a Kardashev Type II civilization (harnessing the full energy of the Sun), AI compute will require orders of magnitude more energy than Earth can ever provide. • Earth only intercepts about 1–2 billionths of the Sun’s total energy output. • Massive-scale AI (e.g., a million times more energy than Earth could produce) can only be powered by capturing far more solar energy in space. • Space-based solar-powered AI satellites/compute clusters are therefore inevitable. • In space, sunlight is continuous (no night, no clouds, no atmosphere), so no batteries are needed. • Solar panels in space can be extremely lightweight and cheap (no glass, no storm-proof framing required). • Cooling in space is dramatically easier and simpler: just radiate heat directly into the cold vacuum — no water, no fans, no liquids, no massive cooling infrastructure. • Most of the mass/volume of current supercomputer racks (e.g., GB300) is cooling hardware; in space that largely disappears. • The cost-effectiveness of electricity and compute in space will soon be overwhelmingly better than on Earth. • Elon’s Prediction: within ~5 years (by ~2030), the lowest-cost way to run large-scale AI will be solar-powered satellites in space. • A terawatt/year of AI compute is essentially impossible on Earth with any realistic build-out of power plants. • Scaling both power generation and cooling on Earth at the required rate is physically and politically unfeasible.$

This is the next big plan for SpaceX: AI Data Centers in Space. • To achieve even a small fraction of a Kardashev Type II civilization (harnessing the full energy of the Sun), AI compute will require orders of magnitude more energy than Earth can ever provide. • Earth only intercepts about 1–2 billionths of the Sun’s total energy output. • Massive-scale AI (e.g., a million times more energy than Earth could produce) can only be powered by capturing far more solar energy in space. • Space-based solar-powered AI satellites/compute clusters are therefore inevitable. • In space, sunlight is continuous (no night, no clouds, no atmosphere), so no batteries are needed. • Solar panels in space can be extremely lightweight and cheap (no glass, no storm-proof framing required). • Cooling in space is dramatically easier and simpler: just radiate heat directly into the cold vacuum — no water, no fans, no liquids, no massive cooling infrastructure. • Most of the mass/volume of current supercomputer racks (e.g., GB300) is cooling hardware; in space that largely disappears. • The cost-effectiveness of electricity and compute in space will soon be overwhelmingly better than on Earth. • Elon’s Prediction: within ~5 years (by ~2030), the lowest-cost way to run large-scale AI will be solar-powered satellites in space. • A terawatt/year of AI compute is essentially impossible on Earth with any realistic build-out of power plants. • Scaling both power generation and cooling on Earth at the required rate is physically and politically unfeasible.

Nic Cruz Patane

49,035 views • 8 months ago

Elon Musk: “In order to make some progress on the Kardashev scale, we need to launch satellites to orbit earth and capture solar power, and that avoids the needs to build massive power plants on earth and deal with cooling. Cooling is much easier in space. What we intend to do is to climb the Kardashev scale.”

Elon Musk: “In order to make some progress on the Kardashev scale, we need to launch satellites to orbit earth and capture solar power, and that avoids the needs to build massive power plants on earth and deal with cooling. Cooling is much easier in space. What we intend to do is to climb the Kardashev scale.”

Sawyer Merritt

137,457 views • 2 months ago

ELON MUSK PREDICTS SPACE WILL BE THE CHEAPEST PLACE TO RUN AI INFERENCE “I think the case is a no-brainer for building solar-powered AI data centers in space” In space, you get unlimited solar power with panels facing the sun In the shadow, it’s freezing cold - just 3 Kelvin - giving you an incredibly efficient natural cooling system with a radiator pointed away from the sun

ELON MUSK PREDICTS SPACE WILL BE THE CHEAPEST PLACE TO RUN AI INFERENCE “I think the case is a no-brainer for building solar-powered AI data centers in space” In space, you get unlimited solar power with panels facing the sun In the shadow, it’s freezing cold - just 3 Kelvin - giving you an incredibly efficient natural cooling system with a radiator pointed away from the sun

X Freeze

639,631 views • 6 months ago

Elon Musk says Space will be the lowest cost place to put AI within the next 2–3 years: “It’s a no brainer for building Solar-Powered AI Data Centers in space because, as you mentioned, it’s also very cold in space. If you’re in the shadow, then it’s very cold, just three degrees Kelvin. So you just have solar panels facing the sun and then a radiator that’s pointed away from the sun, so it has no sun incidence, and then it’s just cooling. It’s a very efficient cooling system. So, net effect is that the lowest cost place to put AI will be space, and that’ll be true within two years, maybe three at the latest.”

Elon Musk says Space will be the lowest cost place to put AI within the next 2–3 years: “It’s a no brainer for building Solar-Powered AI Data Centers in space because, as you mentioned, it’s also very cold in space. If you’re in the shadow, then it’s very cold, just three degrees Kelvin. So you just have solar panels facing the sun and then a radiator that’s pointed away from the sun, so it has no sun incidence, and then it’s just cooling. It’s a very efficient cooling system. So, net effect is that the lowest cost place to put AI will be space, and that’ll be true within two years, maybe three at the latest.”

Nic Cruz Patane

115,890 views • 7 months ago

Elon Musk: The lowest cost place to put AI data centers will be space ---- “The lowest cost place to put AI will be space. I think the case is a no-brainer for building AI, solar-powered AI data centers in space because, as you mentioned, it's also very cold in space. If you're in the shadow, then it's very cold in space, just 3 degrees Kelvin. So you just have your solar panels facing the Sun and then a radiator that's like pointed away from the Sun, so it has no Sun incidence and then it's just cooling. It's a very efficient cooling system. So the net effect is that the lowest cost place to put AI will be space and that'll be true within two years, maybe three, three at the latest.”

Elon Musk: The lowest cost place to put AI data centers will be space ---- “The lowest cost place to put AI will be space. I think the case is a no-brainer for building AI, solar-powered AI data centers in space because, as you mentioned, it's also very cold in space. If you're in the shadow, then it's very cold in space, just 3 degrees Kelvin. So you just have your solar panels facing the Sun and then a radiator that's like pointed away from the Sun, so it has no Sun incidence and then it's just cooling. It's a very efficient cooling system. So the net effect is that the lowest cost place to put AI will be space and that'll be true within two years, maybe three, three at the latest.”

Beanie👾

1,098,183 views • 6 months ago

"It's a no brainer for building solar powered AI data centers in space, you just have solar panels facing the sun, & a radiator that's pointed away from sun, then it's just cooling. The lowest cost place to put AI will be space, & that'll be true within 3 years." 一 Elon Musk

"It's a no brainer for building solar powered AI data centers in space, you just have solar panels facing the sun, & a radiator that's pointed away from sun, then it's just cooling. The lowest cost place to put AI will be space, & that'll be true within 3 years." 一 Elon Musk

DogeDesigner

6,138,329 views • 7 months ago

The lowest cost place for data centers is space when 300 GW of computer data center you can power and cool in space when you have continuous solar and no batteries needed. Elon Musk

The lowest cost place for data centers is space when 300 GW of computer data center you can power and cool in space when you have continuous solar and no batteries needed. Elon Musk

Marc Benioff

174,374 views • 9 months ago

Atreides' Gavin Baker says that once Starship is reusable, the economics of orbital compute crush the economics of terrestrial compute. He lays out the math: "Once $SPCX can reuse Starship, the math for orbital compute becomes pretty compelling." "It's $60B to bring on a GW terrestrially. $25B is power and cooling — you don't need that in space. And so the right comp for that $35B in IT equipment — GPU, CPU, switches, memory, storage — is that $25B [in power and cooling] vs. the cost of launch." "And once Starship is reusable, I think the cost to launch is $5B. So that means you can put a GW into space for [$40B]. The GW on earth is $60B."

Atreides' Gavin Baker says that once Starship is reusable, the economics of orbital compute crush the economics of terrestrial compute. He lays out the math: "Once $SPCX can reuse Starship, the math for orbital compute becomes pretty compelling." "It's $60B to bring on a GW terrestrially. $25B is power and cooling — you don't need that in space. And so the right comp for that $35B in IT equipment — GPU, CPU, switches, memory, storage — is that $25B [in power and cooling] vs. the cost of launch." "And once Starship is reusable, I think the cost to launch is $5B. So that means you can put a GW into space for [$40B]. The GW on earth is $60B."

TBPN

102,778 views • 2 months ago

Elon Musk: Why a 1 Terawatt AI is impossible on Earth?? "My estimate is that the cost-effectiveness of AI in space will be overwhelmingly better than AI on the ground. So, long before you exhaust potential energy sources on Earth, meaning perhaps in the four or five-year timeframe, the lowest cost way to do AI compute will be with solar-powered AI satellites. I'd say not more than five years from now Just look at the supercomputers we're building together. Let's say each rack is two tons; out of that two tons, 1.95 of it is probably for cooling. Just imagine how tiny that little supercomputer is Electricity generation is already becoming a challenge. If you start doing any kind of scaling for both electricity generation and cooling, you realize space is incredibly compelling Let's say you wanted to do 200 or 300 gigawatts per year of AI compute. It's very difficult to do that on Earth. The US average electricity usage, last time I checked, was around 460 gigawatts per year. So, if you're doing 300 gigawatts a year, that would be like two-thirds of US electricity production per year. There's no way you're building power plants at that level And then if you take it up to a Terawatt per year, impossible. You have to do that in space In space, you've got continuous solar. You don't need batteries because it's always sunny. The solar panels actually become cheaper because you don't need glass or framing, and the cooling is just radiative"

Elon Musk: Why a 1 Terawatt AI is impossible on Earth?? "My estimate is that the cost-effectiveness of AI in space will be overwhelmingly better than AI on the ground. So, long before you exhaust potential energy sources on Earth, meaning perhaps in the four or five-year timeframe, the lowest cost way to do AI compute will be with solar-powered AI satellites. I'd say not more than five years from now Just look at the supercomputers we're building together. Let's say each rack is two tons; out of that two tons, 1.95 of it is probably for cooling. Just imagine how tiny that little supercomputer is Electricity generation is already becoming a challenge. If you start doing any kind of scaling for both electricity generation and cooling, you realize space is incredibly compelling Let's say you wanted to do 200 or 300 gigawatts per year of AI compute. It's very difficult to do that on Earth. The US average electricity usage, last time I checked, was around 460 gigawatts per year. So, if you're doing 300 gigawatts a year, that would be like two-thirds of US electricity production per year. There's no way you're building power plants at that level And then if you take it up to a Terawatt per year, impossible. You have to do that in space In space, you've got continuous solar. You don't need batteries because it's always sunny. The solar panels actually become cheaper because you don't need glass or framing, and the cooling is just radiative"

X Freeze

446,449 views • 9 months ago

ELON MUSK: "If civilization continues, A.I in space is inevitable. In order to achieve any meaningful percentage of a Kardashev II scale civilization where you're using even a millionth of the sun's energy, you must have solar powered AI satellites in deep space. My estimate is that the cost of electricity, like the cost effectiveness of AI in space, will be overwhelmingly better than AI on the ground. You actually don't need batteries, because it's always sunny in space and the solar panels actually become cheaper because you don't need glass or framing, and the cooling is just radiative."

ELON MUSK: "If civilization continues, A.I in space is inevitable. In order to achieve any meaningful percentage of a Kardashev II scale civilization where you're using even a millionth of the sun's energy, you must have solar powered AI satellites in deep space. My estimate is that the cost of electricity, like the cost effectiveness of AI in space, will be overwhelmingly better than AI on the ground. You actually don't need batteries, because it's always sunny in space and the solar panels actually become cheaper because you don't need glass or framing, and the cooling is just radiative."

DogeDesigner

9,304,711 views • 8 months ago

Elon Musk and Jensen Huang on A.I. In Space: "If civilization continues, A.I in space is inevitable. In order to achieve any meaningful percentage of a Kardashev II scale civilization where you're using even a millionth of the sun's energy, you must have solar powered AI satellites in deep space. My estimate is that the cost of electricity, like the cost effectiveness of AI in space, will be overwhelmingly better than AI on the ground. You actually don't need batteries, because it's always sunny in space and the solar panels actually become cheaper because you don't need glass or framing, and the cooling is just radiative."

Elon Musk and Jensen Huang on A.I. In Space: "If civilization continues, A.I in space is inevitable. In order to achieve any meaningful percentage of a Kardashev II scale civilization where you're using even a millionth of the sun's energy, you must have solar powered AI satellites in deep space. My estimate is that the cost of electricity, like the cost effectiveness of AI in space, will be overwhelmingly better than AI on the ground. You actually don't need batteries, because it's always sunny in space and the solar panels actually become cheaper because you don't need glass or framing, and the cooling is just radiative."

DogeDesigner

51,314 views • 9 months ago

With just a quick look into some basic physics and logistics of putting a data center in space, the idea becomes comical. First, you have to put massive amounts of hardware, cooling systems, and power into space. Then you have to completely reengineer the data center for space. Then you have to think about maintenance. Oh, and cooling these things down in a vacuum is no easy task. Full Video: #datacenter #space

With just a quick look into some basic physics and logistics of putting a data center in space, the idea becomes comical. First, you have to put massive amounts of hardware, cooling systems, and power into space. Then you have to completely reengineer the data center for space. Then you have to think about maintenance. Oh, and cooling these things down in a vacuum is no easy task. Full Video: #datacenter #space

Peter Zeihan

32,546 views • 1 month ago

SpaceX just released a new website for Starmind their upcoming AI satellite constellation The new Starmind site now gives the first public look at the AI1 satellite, including: • Thermal/vacuum cooling systems • Solar power design • Orbital AI compute architecture Website:

SpaceX just released a new website for Starmind their upcoming AI satellite constellation The new Starmind site now gives the first public look at the AI1 satellite, including: • Thermal/vacuum cooling systems • Solar power design • Orbital AI compute architecture Website:

X Freeze

12,672 views • 1 month ago

JEFF BEZOS PLANS TO BUILD A DATA CENTER IN SPACE WITHIN THE NEXT 10+ YEARS. UNLIMITED SOLAR ENERGY. 24/7 POWER. $AMZN AWS IS PREPARING FOR THE NEXT COMPUTING REVOLUTION. ELON MUSK IS PUSHING AI INTO SPACE. BEZOS IS BUILDING THE INFRASTRUCTURE. THE NEXT TECH WAR WON'T BE FOUGHT ON EARTH 🚀

JEFF BEZOS PLANS TO BUILD A DATA CENTER IN SPACE WITHIN THE NEXT 10+ YEARS. UNLIMITED SOLAR ENERGY. 24/7 POWER. $AMZN AWS IS PREPARING FOR THE NEXT COMPUTING REVOLUTION. ELON MUSK IS PUSHING AI INTO SPACE. BEZOS IS BUILDING THE INFRASTRUCTURE. THE NEXT TECH WAR WON'T BE FOUGHT ON EARTH 🚀

Vivek Sen

29,742 views • 17 days ago

Madrone (Madrone) builds cooling systems for data centers. In Texas, where most new sites are, Madrone can cool using 30% less power and water, thanks to novel dew-point cooling technology. Congrats on the launch, Akshay Trikha & Erik Meike!

Madrone (Madrone) builds cooling systems for data centers. In Texas, where most new sites are, Madrone can cool using 30% less power and water, thanks to novel dew-point cooling technology. Congrats on the launch, Akshay Trikha & Erik Meike!

Y Combinator

24,051 views • 3 months ago

Elon Musk just unveiled SpaceXAI's first AI satellite. • 150 kW peak power / 120 kW sustained compute power • 150 kW solar array using SpaceX-manufactured solar technology • Centralized AI compute payload designed for high-performance AI workloads • 70-meter wingspan when fully deployed • 110 m² deployable liquid radiators to remove waste heat in space • Redundant cooling loops with integrated micrometeoroid shielding • Designed to launch on Starship, enabling the mass-to-orbit needed for large-scale space computing • Uses laser links while avoiding many of the complex communications systems required by Starlink satellites • SpaceX believes future versions can scale far beyond this first design Elon Musk says the path to scaling AI in space requires 3 things: • Massive launch capability (Starship) • Enormous solar power generation • Large radiators to reject heat from AI chips He also suggested that truly large-scale orbital AI could eventually require hundreds of gigawatts to a terawatt of power, implying millions of tons of infrastructure in orbit.

Elon Musk just unveiled SpaceXAI's first AI satellite. • 150 kW peak power / 120 kW sustained compute power • 150 kW solar array using SpaceX-manufactured solar technology • Centralized AI compute payload designed for high-performance AI workloads • 70-meter wingspan when fully deployed • 110 m² deployable liquid radiators to remove waste heat in space • Redundant cooling loops with integrated micrometeoroid shielding • Designed to launch on Starship, enabling the mass-to-orbit needed for large-scale space computing • Uses laser links while avoiding many of the complex communications systems required by Starlink satellites • SpaceX believes future versions can scale far beyond this first design Elon Musk says the path to scaling AI in space requires 3 things: • Massive launch capability (Starship) • Enormous solar power generation • Large radiators to reject heat from AI chips He also suggested that truly large-scale orbital AI could eventually require hundreds of gigawatts to a terawatt of power, implying millions of tons of infrastructure in orbit.

DogeDesigner

138,342 views • 2 months ago

ELON MUSK: Kardashev-Scale civilization will need Moon Bases and Mass Drivers. To reach a Kardashev-scale future for AI, humanity need space-based infrastructure including Moon bases, mass drivers, and large-scale solar power systems. Future AI may require energy at a scale far beyond what Earth can easily support. Solar-powered AI satellites launched from Earth could potentially generate terawatt-level power, but would require around 10 million tons of payload to orbit every year. That level of infrastructure could produce around twice the annual electricity use of the United States for AI power. The idea is not limited by physics; the real challenge is building at a massive enough scale. Lunar infrastructure could unlock petawatt-scale solar-powered AI, making Earth’s current economy look small by comparison.

ELON MUSK: Kardashev-Scale civilization will need Moon Bases and Mass Drivers. To reach a Kardashev-scale future for AI, humanity need space-based infrastructure including Moon bases, mass drivers, and large-scale solar power systems. Future AI may require energy at a scale far beyond what Earth can easily support. Solar-powered AI satellites launched from Earth could potentially generate terawatt-level power, but would require around 10 million tons of payload to orbit every year. That level of infrastructure could produce around twice the annual electricity use of the United States for AI power. The idea is not limited by physics; the real challenge is building at a massive enough scale. Lunar infrastructure could unlock petawatt-scale solar-powered AI, making Earth’s current economy look small by comparison.

DogeDesigner

17,792 views • 3 months ago

Elon Musk on scaling AI in space: Earth is the bottleneck. "It’s harder to scale on the ground than it is to scale in space." "You’re going to get about five times the effectiveness of solar panels in space versus the ground, and you don’t need batteries. I almost wore my other shirt, which says, 'It’s always sunny in space.'" "In 36 months (but probably closer to 30 months), the most economically compelling place to put AI will be space." "Once you start thinking in terms of what percentage of the sun’s power are you harnessing, you realize you have to go to space." Source: Elon Musk with Stripe’s John Collison and Dwarkesh Patel

Elon Musk on scaling AI in space: Earth is the bottleneck. "It’s harder to scale on the ground than it is to scale in space." "You’re going to get about five times the effectiveness of solar panels in space versus the ground, and you don’t need batteries. I almost wore my other shirt, which says, 'It’s always sunny in space.'" "In 36 months (but probably closer to 30 months), the most economically compelling place to put AI will be space." "Once you start thinking in terms of what percentage of the sun’s power are you harnessing, you realize you have to go to space." Source: Elon Musk with Stripe’s John Collison and Dwarkesh Patel

a16z

408,524 views • 6 months ago

Most AI discussions ignore the physical reality: a lot of facilities still can’t support liquid cooling. At NVIDIA GTC, Lenovo’s Jon Alexander explained that across 4,400 global locations, many sites still aren’t ready for liquid cooling. Some environments support megawatts of power, others are limited to air cooling in last-mile telco facilities. That reality is shaping how AI infrastructure actually gets deployed. At the same time, AI is moving so fast that supply chain and time-to-market are becoming competitive advantages. The companies that can build, ship, and deploy infrastructure quickly are the ones that will keep up with demand.

Most AI discussions ignore the physical reality: a lot of facilities still can’t support liquid cooling. At NVIDIA GTC, Lenovo’s Jon Alexander explained that across 4,400 global locations, many sites still aren’t ready for liquid cooling. Some environments support megawatts of power, others are limited to air cooling in last-mile telco facilities. That reality is shaping how AI infrastructure actually gets deployed. At the same time, AI is moving so fast that supply chain and time-to-market are becoming competitive advantages. The companies that can build, ship, and deploy infrastructure quickly are the ones that will keep up with demand.

Six Five Media

1,759,958 views • 4 months ago

Elon Musk says Earth can be powered with just solar and batteries — no magic The sun a giant fusion reactor that shows up every day Solar + batteries is the clearest and most practical solution

Elon Musk says Earth can be powered with just solar and batteries — no magic The sun a giant fusion reactor that shows up every day Solar + batteries is the clearest and most practical solution

Dima Zeniuk

288,425 views • 1 year ago