AI will reach space in less than 36 months, according to Elon Musk

Elon Musk believes that the best place to take data centers for artificial intelligence (AI) is space, where it sees a more efficient and economical deployment, and even predicts that this will happen in less than 36 months.

The technology magnate plans put a terawatt of GPU into orbit. The reason lies in energy availability, that is, the production of energy necessary to operate data centers.

As explained in Dwarkesh Patel’s ‘Cheeky Pint’ podcast, you would get “five times greater efficiency of solar panels in space than on the ground, and no batteries are needed.

This is because in space there are no problems with the availability of solar energy because there is always sun, that is, “there is no day and night cycle, no seasonality, no clouds, no atmosphere.” “The atmosphere alone produces an energy loss of approximately 30%,” has assured.

For Musk, furthermore, space is “the only place where you can really climb“This plan, however, raises a problem with the maintenance of the GPUs, since it would not be so easy to repair or replace them up there if they fail in AI training. However, it has ruled out that it is really a problem, especially if recent GPUs are installed.

“Once they start working and you get through the initial debugging cycle from Nvidia or whoever makes the chips (they could be Tesla AI6 chips or similar, or TPUs, Trainiums, etc.), they are pretty reliable past a certain point. So I don’t think maintenance will be a problem,” he said.

Musk is so convinced of this plan that he claims that space will be “the most economically attractive place to implement AI,” and even predicts that will happen in 36 months or less.

It also ensures that it is more affordable to manufacture the solar cells for the panels that will be installed in space because they do not require a heavy structure, batteries or glass. And when asked about the engineering difficulties that the new scenario would pose, such as radiation resistance or replacing infinite bandwidth with orbiting lasers, has simply shifted the focus to the current shortage of turbines for cooling systems.

Musk intends to launch into space a million satellites to generate an orbit for space data centers focused on boosting current artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, using solar energy.

He defends that it will be “the most efficient way to satisfy the growing demand for AI processing power”, since they will be powered by solar energy for their operation”, and has already requested permission from the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to do so.

This plan is supported by the recent acquisition of xAI by SpaceX, with which Musk not only advances the unification of his empire but also merges the space race with artificial intelligence.