Elon Musk says Earth data centers are peanuts compared to SpaceX in orbit

Elon Musk says Earth data centers will look like peanuts compared to what SpaceX is planning in orbit by the end of 2028. Musk pushed back on X against analyst estimates that SpaceX needs to spend four hundred seventy billion dollars over the next five quarters to reach thirteen gigawatts of compute.

Nvidia, which makes advanced computer chips, captures up to eighty-nine percent of that spending, according to Milk Road Stocks. Musk said the company capital expenditure efficiency is severely underestimated, noting that new compute pays for itself in under a year. According to financial models by Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire, SpaceX capital spending will climb from eighty-eight billion dollars this year to three hundred sixty-nine billion dollars in 2028 before turning cash positive.

Musk replied to the model by writing that he thinks they can do better. The orbital plan runs through Starmind, with SpaceX planning to operate up to one million artificial intelligence satellites flying in clusters out of its factory in Bastrop, Texas.

Getting there requires launching thousands of units starting in late 2027 and ramping up Starship flights. Meanwhile, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell announced that over two million of her shares in SpaceX, which designs and builds rockets and spacecraft, are headed to children accounts starting in December.

Photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, AI-edited