SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said it’s good to have his space exploration company, SpaceX, while talking about AI data centers in space.
“Space Is Overwhelmingly What Matters”
Speaking at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum on Wednesday, Musk was asked to share his thoughts on AI being in space. "You must have solar-powered AI satellites in deep space" to use even a fraction of the sun's energy to have meaningful progress as a civilization in space, Musk said.
"Once you think in terms of the Kardashev scale 2 civilization…Space is overwhelmingly what matters," Musk said, outlining the importance of harnessing the sun's energy.
"If you want to have something that is, say, a million times more energy than Earth could possibly produce, you must go into space," the billionaire said, adding that it was "handy" to have a space company like SpaceX.
AI Satellites In Space
"Cost effectiveness of AI in space will be overwhelmingly better than AI on the ground," Musk said. He added that the lowest cost way to do AI compute in the next four to five years would be via "solar-powered AI satellites" in space.
Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang, who was present with Musk at the event, shared that each rack of the supercomputers currently being built weighs over 2 tons, out of which "1.95 of it is probably for cooling."
Musk agreed with Huang, adding that space would become very "compelling" for cooling purposes. He also added that AI's power requirements would be "two-thirds" of the U.S.'s total energy consumption. "You actually don't need batteries cause it's always sunny in space."
Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai Share Musk's Ambitions
Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos had earlier touted the idea of Gigawatt-scale data centers in space, sharing that proposed data centers in space could prove to be more cost-effective than their on-ground counterparts.
Bezos is also reportedly backing a new startup, Project Prometheus, which focuses on AI applications in the automotive, aerospace and scientific research sectors.
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) CEO Sundar Pichai also outlined Project Suncatcher, which aims to launch a low Earth orbit data center powered directly by the sun. Musk hailed the idea.
Elon Musk's Mars Ambitions, SpaceX's Possible IPO
Musk has previously shared his ambitions of colonizing Mars, with SpaceX recently sharing an expedited timeline of the Starship rocket's Lunar and Mars missions. Musk also shared that the Starship rocket can carry up to 100 people on board.
Musk also hinted at the possibility of SpaceX going public sometime in the future. "I want to try to figure out some way for Tesla shareholders to participate in SpaceX," adding that he wanted his supporters to be able to have SpaceX stock
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