SpaceX reveals its first orbital data center AI1
Moving AI compute into orbit untethers data centres from land, water and grid limits — if vacuum cooling can be solved.
Key takeaways
- The timing of this announcement is no accident, coming just three days before SpaceX’s IPO, which is set to price on June 11th and trade on June 12th at a target valuation near $1.75 trillion.
- In his announcement, Musk pegged the satellite’s compute payload at roughly the draw of a single Nvidia GB300 rack, which pulls around 140 kW on the ground.
- In terms of its overall specs, SpaceX disclosed an average compute payload of 120 kW, a peak of 150 kW, and a density of 70 kW per ton, with the craft operating at roughly 600 km.
Cite or link to this article
Griffin, M. (2026) 'SpaceX reveals its first orbital data center AI1', 311 Institute, 24 April. Available at: https://www.311institute.com/spacex-reveals-its-first-orbital-data-center-ai1/ (Accessed: 1 October 2026).
Elon Musk has the first detailed design of SpaceX's AI1 satellite in a 30-minute video posted to the company's X account, the opening generation of an orbital craft SpaceX wants to build by the million to run AI workloads off Earth's power grid. Carrying a 150 kW peak compute payload across a 70-metre deployed wingspan, the spacecraft uses an interchangeable hardware design that lets different chipmakers supply the processors. The timing of this announcement is no accident, coming just three days before SpaceX’s IPO, which is set to price on June 11th and trade on June 12th at a target valuation near $1.75 trillion.
In his announcement, Musk pegged the satellite’s compute payload at roughly the draw of a single Nvidia GB300 rack, which pulls around 140 kW on the ground. One AI1, in those terms, is about one rack in orbit. In terms of its overall specs, SpaceX disclosed an average compute payload of 120 kW, a peak of 150 kW, and a density of 70 kW per ton, with the craft operating at roughly 600 km.
A satellite with these specs comes with some serious space requirements, and its 70-metre deployed wingspan edges past the 68.4-metre span of a Boeing 747-8. As for the interchangeable compute, that leaves the platform open to whichever vendor ships the most competitive AI silicon, rather than locking it to a single supplier.
This interchangeability is no doubt important to Musk, not least because SpaceX can’t yet guarantee its own supply of chips. The company is currently building Terafab, a chip fab that’s running as a joint venture with Tesla, while its S-1 IPO filing warns it can’t currently secure enough chips.
That aside, the elephant in the room is cooling: a rack on Earth sheds heat into moving air and circulating water, neither of which exists in a vacuum, where the only viable route is radiating it away as infrared. AI1 features up to 110 m² of deployable liquid radiators, as well as redundant pumping loops and integrated micro-meteroid shielding. By comparison, the International Space Station’s ETACS rejects roughly 70 kW of heat — around half of what’s needed to cool a 140 kW GB300 rack — across 422 m² of radiator at a cost of up to $500 million, according to SemiAnalysis.
Musk has previously waved off potential thermal critiques, telling SpaceNews back in March that it's "safe to say SpaceX knows how to do heat rejection in space" and pointing to the company's fleet of more than 10,000 Starlink satellites.
SpaceX filed with the FCC in January to launch up to a million satellites and has already signed compute deals, including a $920 million-per-month agreement with Google. The model has prominent sceptics: OpenAI's Sam Altman called orbital data centers "ridiculous" earlier this year.
FAQ
Why put a data centre in orbit at all?
Space offers near-limitless solar power and no land or water constraints, but heat is the catch, with no air or water to carry it away, AI1 has to radiate all of its waste heat as infrared, which is the design’s hardest unsolved problem.
About the author
Matthew Griffin Founder, 311 Institute
Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath."
Read full bio
Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath." 15-time best selling author of the "Codex of the Future" series, Matthew is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working with royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77 governments, NGOs, and multi-national mid and mega cap firms to help them explore, shape, and lead the next 50 years of business and society.
An award-winning YouTube creator with over a million followers, with an unrivalled global reach and impact, Matthew is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker, lecturer, and mentor who collaborates with global leaders through the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to shape pivotal initiatives such as the UN’s AI for Humanity program, the United Nations Conference of the Parties (UN COP), and the World Economic Forum in Davos.
As the former Global Head of Cloud, National Security, and Enterprise Sales for companies including Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, Matthew has a proven track record of building multi-billion dollar business units and turning failing divisions into market leaders. His ability to identify, analyse, and communicate the implications of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends is unparalleled, and his insights are trusted by many of the world’s most respected organisations, including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi, Coca-Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Dow Jones, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, Siemens AG and Siemens Energy, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, Walmart, Workday, Worldpay and many others.
Regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, Matthews mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.
What future do you need to see?
Choose one to get started on computing and the future of your organisation.
Source: first published by the 311 Institute on 24 April 2026. Cite as: Griffin, M. (2026). SpaceX reveals its first orbital data center AI1. 311 Institute. https://www.311institute.com/spacex-reveals-its-first-orbital-data-center-ai1/
You are welcome to quote this article with credit and a link to the original.