Elon Musk’s Solution to Data Centers: Just Put Them in Space

Elon Musk claimed on October 31 that SpaceX will be sending data centers into space. He responded to a post on X from journalist Eric Berger about the viability of the concept.

“Simply scaling up Starlink V3 satellites, which have high speed laser links would work,” he wrote on X. “SpaceX will be doing this.” 

As AI tools proliferate, so does demand for quick outputs. But it takes significant energy for AI models to function at the speed and quality that we want it to—both AI training and inference rely on data centers. The data centers that host the GPUs powering these functions are expanding, and with it the amount of electricity needed to operate and cool them. 

The environmental impact of new technology is increasingly an issue. So why not just move those data centers to space?

Musk says that SpaceX’s satellites could incorporate the computing power for data centers. The company’s Starlink satellites currently provide global broadband internet service, orbiting at 550 km from Earth. They’re closer than other satellites, meaning latency is much lower at around 25 milliseconds compared to over 600 ms. 

The company’s upcoming V3 satellites are designed to provide gigabit-class internet speeds and could reportedly weigh up to 4,409 pounds. Musk says they could be made even larger to host the data centers. 

Still, they need Starship, SpaceX’s enormous rocket, for launch. Starship has had an explosion-filled history but recently had a good launch (its eleventh) in October.

Startup Starcloud is also on a mission to send data centers into space. The Redmond, Washington-based company is about to launch its Starcloud-1 satellite, carrying NVIDIA’s H100 GPU. It’s expected to offer 100 times more powerful GPU computing than any other space-based operation. 

The company hopes it’s a step toward its goal of building five-gigawatt orbital data centers around 2.5 miles wide.

“The only environmental cost is the launch,” said Philip Johnston, Starcloud CEO. “After that, we could save 10 times the carbon emissions compared with running data centers on Earth.”