Overview
- Starlink engineering chief Michael Nicolls said SpaceX is recruiting for multiple roles to develop space‑bound data centers, including a Space Lasers Engineer based in Redmond, Washington.
- Elon Musk predicted on the Dwarkesh podcast that space will be the most economically compelling place to run AI within 30 to 36 months, citing uninterrupted solar energy.
- SpaceX says it aims to deploy a constellation of up to a million satellites operating as orbital data centers, targeting around 100 kW of compute per ton and large annual capacity gains.
- Musk has aligned SpaceX with his AI company xAI to pursue the concept, arguing terrestrial electricity constraints make off‑planet compute attractive despite high launch and infrastructure demands.
- Scientists and industry experts question feasibility, pointing to heat rejection in vacuum, radiation damage, debris collision risks, limited maintenance options, and costs, as rivals test early prototypes from Google/Planet, Aetherflux, and Nvidia‑backed Starcloud.