Elon Musk, who once claimed to have done more for the environment than “any single human on Earth,” has a new mission to save the planet from the effects of data centers — by building them in space.
The billionaire chief executive of SpaceX wants to launch a constellation of 1 million solar-powered data centers to alleviate the strain that artificial intelligence is placing on power grids around the world, SpaceX said Friday in an application filed with the Federal Communications Commission. Each data center would be 31 miles long and operate more than 310 miles above the Earth’s surface.
“By harnessing the Sun’s abundant, clean energy in orbit — cutting emissions, minimizing land disruption, and reducing the overall environmental costs of grid expansion — SpaceX’s proposed system will enable sustainable AI advancement,” SpaceX said in the FCC filing. The agency regulates the radio frequency spectrum that would be used to transmit information between the floating tech factories and the planet.
The application is the first of its kind by an American company and stands to set off an international battle over space debris and rights to the Ka-band spectrum used for satellite transmissions. The day before SpaceX filed its application, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation announced plans to begin operating orbital data centers in the next five years.
