According to a statement on the SpaceX website, two of Elon Musk’s businesses are combining to construct data centers in space.Musk’s artificial intelligence firm, xAI, which also owns the social media site X (previously Twitter), has been purchased by the rocket and satellite corporation.
With AI, rockets, space-based internet, direct-to-mobile device communications, and the world’s leading real-time information and free speech platform, Musk described the merged business as “the most ambitious, vertically integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth” in the article.
According to Bloomberg, which originally reported on the deal, SpaceX is preparing to go public, and the acquisition—the biggest in history—could put Musk’s company’s worth at $1.5 trillion. The value is estimated by the New York Times to be closer to $1 trillion.
Musk expressed worries about Earthbased data centers in the essay, citing their enormous electricity requirements and the “hardship on communities and the ecosystem” they cause.According to him, the purchase is a component of a strategy to power data centers and spacebased facilities with solar energy in order to train AI models and spur scientific advancements.
According to Musk, “the lowest cost approach to develop AI compute will be in space within 2 to 3 years.”
A request for comment was not immediately answered by a SpaceX official.
With its V3 Starlink satellites, SpaceX reportedly guaranteed gigabit internet speeds from orbit.
What It Implies For The Remainder Of Us:
Although Musk’s essay concentrated on the future of AI and data center requirements, the merger may affect not only people working in the AI sector but also users of services like Starlink and X that are included in the agreement.
For example, Starlink has amended its privacy statement to state that it will train AI using consumer data.
According to Mahdi Eslamimehr, executive vice president of Quandary Peak Research, “the usage of personal data from its 9 million users for AI training unless they explicitly opt out is a sharp reminder of the trade-offs in our increasingly connected society.”
Consumers should be skeptical of a future where a single entity controls not only their internet access and a major social media platform but also the AI models trained on their personal data, especially given the contentious past of xAI’s Grok chatbot.”
He adds that the deal may be more about fighting with terrestrial rivals like OpenAI, the manufacturer of ChatGPT, and Anthropic, the maker of Claude.
Even if that future is years away, Musk claims that combining the technology of his several businesses “sets the seed for a future where AI assistants, content generation, and real-time translation are not constrained by geography or local energy infrastructure.”
Last but not least, Eslamimehr claims that if Musk can fulfill “even a fraction of his aspirations,” the potential cost savings from employing solar energy and cooling through space vacuum might be passed down by reducing subscription costs and AI use restrictions.
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