4 ms·

It's widely reported that Musk is a majority shareholder of xAI and the controlling shareholder of SpaceX (close to 80% of voting shares). Not surprising that h

It's widely reported that Musk is a majority shareholder of xAI and the controlling shareholder of SpaceX (close to 80% of voting shares). Not surprising that he would be looking to consolidate ownership under one entity especially if he perceives significant synergies (i.e., data centres in space).

alex_young 8mo ago
Data centers in space are a hilariously bad idea. Where would the heat go? This idea is like the opposite of liquid cooling.
- googleme 8mo ago
  I didn't say it was a good idea, just that if Musk perceives it's a good idea then it makes sense why he would want to combine the two businesses.
  - brendoelfrendo 8mo ago
    I think it's far more likely that he wants to combine his businesses to roll his really expensive, debt-ridden companies into one entity with the company that actually reliably makes money.
- Hikikomori 8mo ago
  Some guy on hacker news argued they could just use radiators.
  - Sharlin 8mo ago
    Radiators might be a reasonably effective way to reject heat if you can run your AI machines at 1000 K or thereabouts.
- gspr 8mo ago
  Indeed. But it's also a hilariously Musky idea! Some moderate technical competence paired with sociopathy and an ego orders of magnitude too big, and voila, you get Cybertrucks, Hyperloops, Neuralinks, Teslabots, datacenters in space, and all the other garbage the man spews. I cannot wait for him to one day be hit in the face by reality.
  - deleted 8mo ago
    [deleted]
- brightball 8mo ago
  Aside from Elon Musk, there are a few other people with a lot of capital aiming to do the same thing. That means, either they are all wrong (possible) or this problem has been solved somehow and the solution itself is not public. Google and Amazon are doing the same thing. Maybe it is a moonshot (pun intended), but Musk is hardly alone in the push. https://www.wsj.com/tech/bezos-and-musk-race-to-bring-data-centers-to-space-faa486ee https://www.wsj.com/tech/bezos-and-musk-race-to-bring-data-c... https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/01/technology/space-data-centers-ai.html https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/01/technology/space-data-cen...
- pppone 8mo ago
  Not to mention the huge issues of cosmic rays. Sure, if the lifespan of the satellite is expected to be low, then maybe tolerable. But even then, how would this be financially viable?
- gordonhart 8mo ago
  Shocked to see SpaceX buy the datacenter in space meme. Where does the power come from? Where does the heat go? Why add (high) launch costs to your buildout capex? Why add radiation as another risk factor to your already-unreliable GPUs? Am I missing something fundamental here...?
  - IshKebab 8mo ago
    Money! Also power source is just solar - not too difficult. I don't think radiation would be too much of an issue either since they're in low earth orbit. Heat is probably the biggest problem. Or manufacturing & launch costs. Pretty silly idea anyway.
- falloutx 8mo ago
  Only a person who is high as a kite can think thats a good idea.
deleted 8mo ago
[deleted]
newyankee 8mo ago
I have never understood how Data centers in space ever make economic sense, the payload, latency and many other issues make it difficult at least for the immediate needs
- gspr 8mo ago
  You mean unlike Hyperloops, Cybertrucks, Teslabots, Neuralinks, and all the other insane stuff that moron cooks up?
- pantalaimon 8mo ago
  Latency isn't an issue with Starlink - the data centers are in low earth orbit, not in GEO
  - tacticus 8mo ago
    given the max bandwidth of a starlink sat is in the 100Gb on a good day range why would you want to limit a DC to less bandwidth than a single cheap fibre? Also in LEO you're going to have reentry become more of an issue (starlink burning up in the atmosphere isn't some free garbage removal it will have a measurable impact on the chemical make up (assuming it even burns up and doesn't just squash more farm buildings), Power supply more of an issue and still have huge problems with heat and radiation.
- ben_w 8mo ago
  DCs in space have a lot of problems, but latency isn't really one of them. At least for inference*, I don't care if a chat response comes with a 0.2 second ping time (Earth-GEO-Earth at the speed of light), and I definitely don't care if a vibe coding session has a 2.5 second ping time (Earth-Moon-Earth). I wonder what the largest viable ping time would be, for vibe coding? If it exceeds 40 minutes (my pre-Christmas experimentation would have been fine with that but it was just experiments), these things could be on Mars on the opposite side of the sun and still be useful. * I have no idea what training needs, neither fundamentally nor currently in practice

alex_young 8mo ago

Data centers in space are a hilariously bad idea. Where would the heat go? This idea is like the opposite of liquid cooling.

googleme 8mo ago
I didn't say it was a good idea, just that if Musk perceives it's a good idea then it makes sense why he would want to combine the two businesses.
- brendoelfrendo 8mo ago
  I think it's far more likely that he wants to combine his businesses to roll his really expensive, debt-ridden companies into one entity with the company that actually reliably makes money.
Hikikomori 8mo ago
Some guy on hacker news argued they could just use radiators.
- Sharlin 8mo ago
  Radiators might be a reasonably effective way to reject heat if you can run your AI machines at 1000 K or thereabouts.
gspr 8mo ago
Indeed. But it's also a hilariously Musky idea! Some moderate technical competence paired with sociopathy and an ego orders of magnitude too big, and voila, you get Cybertrucks, Hyperloops, Neuralinks, Teslabots, datacenters in space, and all the other garbage the man spews. I cannot wait for him to one day be hit in the face by reality.
- deleted 8mo ago
  [deleted]
brightball 8mo ago
Aside from Elon Musk, there are a few other people with a lot of capital aiming to do the same thing. That means, either they are all wrong (possible) or this problem has been solved somehow and the solution itself is not public. Google and Amazon are doing the same thing. Maybe it is a moonshot (pun intended), but Musk is hardly alone in the push. https://www.wsj.com/tech/bezos-and-musk-race-to-bring-data-centers-to-space-faa486ee https://www.wsj.com/tech/bezos-and-musk-race-to-bring-data-c... https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/01/technology/space-data-centers-ai.html https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/01/technology/space-data-cen...
pppone 8mo ago
Not to mention the huge issues of cosmic rays. Sure, if the lifespan of the satellite is expected to be low, then maybe tolerable. But even then, how would this be financially viable?
gordonhart 8mo ago
Shocked to see SpaceX buy the datacenter in space meme. Where does the power come from? Where does the heat go? Why add (high) launch costs to your buildout capex? Why add radiation as another risk factor to your already-unreliable GPUs? Am I missing something fundamental here...?
- IshKebab 8mo ago
  Money! Also power source is just solar - not too difficult. I don't think radiation would be too much of an issue either since they're in low earth orbit. Heat is probably the biggest problem. Or manufacturing & launch costs. Pretty silly idea anyway.
falloutx 8mo ago
Only a person who is high as a kite can think thats a good idea.

deleted 8mo ago

[deleted]

newyankee 8mo ago

I have never understood how Data centers in space ever make economic sense, the payload, latency and many other issues make it difficult at least for the immediate needs

gspr 8mo ago
You mean unlike Hyperloops, Cybertrucks, Teslabots, Neuralinks, and all the other insane stuff that moron cooks up?
pantalaimon 8mo ago
Latency isn't an issue with Starlink - the data centers are in low earth orbit, not in GEO
- tacticus 8mo ago
  given the max bandwidth of a starlink sat is in the 100Gb on a good day range why would you want to limit a DC to less bandwidth than a single cheap fibre? Also in LEO you're going to have reentry become more of an issue (starlink burning up in the atmosphere isn't some free garbage removal it will have a measurable impact on the chemical make up (assuming it even burns up and doesn't just squash more farm buildings), Power supply more of an issue and still have huge problems with heat and radiation.
ben_w 8mo ago
DCs in space have a lot of problems, but latency isn't really one of them. At least for inference*, I don't care if a chat response comes with a 0.2 second ping time (Earth-GEO-Earth at the speed of light), and I definitely don't care if a vibe coding session has a 2.5 second ping time (Earth-Moon-Earth). I wonder what the largest viable ping time would be, for vibe coding? If it exceeds 40 minutes (my pre-Christmas experimentation would have been fine with that but it was just experiments), these things could be on Mars on the opposite side of the sun and still be useful. * I have no idea what training needs, neither fundamentally nor currently in practice