A new analysis prepared by Morgan Stanley reveals that the artificial intelligence satellite constellation planned by SpaceX will achieve significant economies of scale by 2031. This development could bring space-based computing costs to levels lower than some existing ground information centers.

According to data from Morgan Stanley, SpaceX’s on-orbit computing cost could drop to $6.5 per watt annually by 2031. By comparison, the total cost of NVIDIA Blackwell GPU-based terrestrial data centers is $6.8 per watt per year.

The Era of Artificial Intelligence Computing in Space

SpaceX introduced AI1, the first satellite model designed specifically for artificial intelligence computing processes. These satellites can support up to 150kW peak computing load; It is equipped with liquid radiators, meteor shields, a central computing module and deployable solar panels.

These satellites, which will be produced at the Gigasat facility in Texas, are at the center of the company’s strategic moves in the space economy. SpaceX has applied to the FCC for authorization to launch 1 million satellites, a concrete step towards a Kardashev II-level civilization.

Operating a data center in space offers valuable advantages such as vacuum-based radiative cooling and uninterrupted solar power. In addition, the large areas in orbit provide a different operational flexibility compared to the limited data center capacities on earth.

Analyzes predict that by 2040 these costs could drop to $1.7 per watt annually. This means that the annual cost of a 1GW orbital data center will remain around 1.7 billion dollars.

New Satellite Approval Process from FCC

The current total cost of information centers with a similar capacity in the world is approximately 100 billion dollars. This huge difference highlights the future economic potential of orbital-based computing infrastructure.

The FCC introduced a mechanism called “Delete, Delete, Delete” with the aim of speeding up the license approval process for new satellites. This new regulation will help SpaceX faster overcome bureaucratic processes in the developing space economy.

What do you think about this huge space-based artificial intelligence infrastructure?