SpaceX has formally acquired another one of Elon Musk\u2019s companies, xAi, the space company announced on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpaceX has acquired xAI to form the most ambitious, vertically-integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth, with AI, rockets, space-based internet, direct-to-mobile device communications and the world\u2019s foremost real-time information and free speech platform,\u201d the company said. \u201cThis marks not just the next chapter, but the next book in SpaceX and xAI\u2019s mission: scaling to make a sentient sun to understand the Universe and extend the light of consciousness to the stars!\u201d<\/p>\n
The merging of what is arguably Musk\u2019s most successful company, SpaceX, with the more speculative xAI venture is a risk. Founded in 2023, xAI\u2019s main products are the generative AI chatbot Grok and the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter. The company aims to compete with OpenAI and other artificial intelligence firms. However, Grok has been controversial, including the sexualization of women and children through AI-generated images, as has Musk\u2019s management of Twitter.<\/p>\n
There can be no question that the merger of SpaceX\u2014the world\u2019s premiere spaceflight company\u2014and the artificial intelligence firm offer potential strategic advances. Musk strongly believes that artificial intelligence is central to humanity\u2019s future and wants to be among those leading in its development. With this merger, he plans to use SpaceX\u2019s deep expertise in rapid launch and satellite manufacturing and management to deploy a constellation of up to 1 million orbital data centers. This will provide the backbone of computing power needed to support xAI\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n
Musk\u2019s plan for the merged companies is predicated on several assumptions, including that AI is not a bubble, but rather a technology that will be fully embraced in the future; that orbital data centers are cost-competitive compared to ground-based data centers; and that compute is the essential roadblock that must be solved for widespread adoption of AI by society.<\/p>\n
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If these assumptions are true, the merged SpaceX-xAI company holds a powerful position. It could potentially own a full stack of capabilities, from launch to orbital bandwidth to frontier AI models, and with Starlink Internet, it could provide AI on demand, anywhere in the world, to any mobile device.<\/p>\n
SpaceX already has the world\u2019s workhorse reusable rocket with the Falcon 9. It can presently deliver about 20 tons to low-Earth orbit for an internal cost of $15 million, compared to more than four or five times that on the open market. Moreover, SpaceX is working toward a fully reusable super heavy lift rocket with its Starship vehicle.<\/p>\n
The privately held company also operates more satellites, about 9,600, than any other country or company in the world by a factor of 10. It has extensive operations not just in deploying but also in operating this constellation over the last decade. This is not a simple capability.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say there have been as many engineering advancements in orbital safety and collision prevention in the last 10 years as there have been advances in rocketry, and that may have gone unnoticed,\u201d said Brian Weeden, director of civil and commercial policy at The Aerospace Corporation, in an interview.<\/p>\n
In an email to SpaceX employees on Monday, Musk said Starship will begin launching V3 Starlink satellites into orbit this year, as well as the next generation of direct-to-mobile satellites. The launches, he said, will be a \u201cforcing function\u201d to improve the performance of Starship, making it more rapidly reusable for data center deployment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sheer number of satellites that will be needed for space-based data centers will push Starship to even greater heights,\u201d Musk wrote. \u201cWith launches every hour carrying 200 tons per flight, Starship will deliver millions of tons to orbit and beyond per year, enabling an exciting future where humanity is out exploring amongst the stars.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Musk told employees that launching 1 million tons per year of satellites, generating 100 kW of compute power per ton, would add 100 gigawatts of AI compute capacity annually, \u201cwith no ongoing operational or maintenance needs.\u201d Ultimately, Musk believes there is a path to launching 1 TW\/year from Earth.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy estimate is that within 2 to 3 years, the lowest cost way to generate AI compute will be in space,\u201d Musk wrote. \u201cThis cost-efficiency alone will enable innovative companies to forge ahead in training their AI models and processing data at unprecedented speeds and scales, accelerating breakthroughs in our understanding of physics and invention of technologies to benefit humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Musk is clearly bullish on the future of AI and on space\u2019s potential to address the voracious power needs of AI data centers. Many people in the AI industry speculate that artificial intelligence is likely to go through serious and sustained growing pains, or doubt that space-based data centers can compete with operations built on the ground. But Musk, more than anyone, has the means to press forward the bull case for space-based AI, and he is going for it.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s merger follows an ultra-ambitious filing on Friday with the Federal Communications Commission in which SpaceX sought permission to launch 1 million satellites that will operate as \u201corbital data centers.\u201d The company said it would deploy the satellites to orbits with an altitude between 500 and 2,000 km, and 30-degree and Sun-synchronous inclinations.<\/p>\n
SpaceX also recently announced its plans to deploy a space situational awareness system, called Stargaze, that will use star trackers to provide data on potential conjunctions between satellites in orbit. The goal is to help de-conflict satellite trajectories and avoid collisions in low-Earth orbit.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis is all happening really fast,\u201d said Victoria Samson, chief director of space security and stability for Secure World Foundation, in an interview.<\/p>\n
Samson said that, at present, satellites have a fairly large \u201cbubble\u201d of space around them when it comes to collision detection. This is because of uncertainties in the precise location and movement of vehicles. If you improve space situational awareness, such as what SpaceX seeks to do with Stargaze, those bubbles could be shrunk to reduce the number of potential collision warnings. But that will come with risks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of room in space, of course,\u201d Samson said. \u201cBut the question is, how much risk do you want to take?\u201d<\/p>\n
A technical expert at The Aerospace Corporation, Marlon Sorge, told Ars that many unanswered questions about SpaceX\u2019s proposed megaconstellation for orbital data centers make it difficult to assess the risks of collision. This includes their size (they will require very large solar arrays to collect sunlight) and precisely where the satellites will be deployed. There is already a lot of debris at around 800 to 1,000 km above Earth from previous collisions, including from an infamous Chinese anti-satellite missile test in 2007, which created more than 3,000 pieces of golf-ball-size or larger debris.<\/p>\n
Above that altitude, there is less debris, Sorge said. But objects at that altitude take centuries to deorbit naturally, due to the very limited atmosphere.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big challenge at those altitudes is the stuff that\u2019s up there stays up there,\u201d Sorge said. \u201cIf you generate more debris, if you have problems, it won\u2019t go away, so you\u2019re stuck with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
SpaceX sought to address these concerns in its regulatory filing, noting that each satellite would have \u201credundant maneuverability capabilities\u201d in order to deorbit into Earth\u2019s atmosphere. The filing also appears to recognize emerging science that indicates that aluminum burning up from reentering satellites is harmful to ozone levels. To address this, SpaceX is considering moving aging satellites into \u201chigh altitude Earth orbits or heliocentric orbits.\u201d<\/p>\n
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However, Sorge noted that the amount of energy, or delta-V, needed to move a satellite from low-Earth orbit into a heliocentric orbit is \u201cnon-trivial.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the many questions raised by the new merger is whether SpaceX has lost its way. Musk founded the company in 2002 with the singular purpose of settling Mars, an audacious if not impossible goal at the time. In the decades since, SpaceX has made credible progress toward Mars, and with Starship, humanity has for the first time a transportation system potentially capable of landing humans on the red planet.<\/p>\n
But acquiring an AI company and putting so much effort into orbital data centers? Is this consistent with the Mars mission? Musk clearly thinks it is.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile launching AI satellites from Earth is the immediate focus, Starship\u2019s capabilities will also enable operations on other worlds,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThanks to advancements like in-space propellant transfer, Starship will be capable of landing massive amounts of cargo on the Moon. Once there, it will be possible to establish a permanent presence for scientific and manufacturing pursuits. Factories on the Moon can take advantage of lunar resources to manufacture satellites and deploy them further into space.\u201d<\/p>\n
And from there, he said, Mars will be firmly on the horizon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe capabilities we unlock by making space-based data centers a reality will fund and enable self-growing bases on the Moon, an entire civilization on Mars and ultimately expansion to the Universe,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the vision, at least.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SpaceX has formally acquired another one of Elon Musk\u2019s companies, xAi, the space company announced on Monday afternoon. \u201cSpaceX has acquired xAI to form the most ambitious, vertically-integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth, with AI, rockets, space-based internet, direct-to-mobile device communications and the world\u2019s foremost real-time information and free speech platform,\u201d the company said. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43436"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}