NEW YORK: Elon Musk has revealed a more detailed look at an early version of the artificial intelligence (AI) data center satellite SpaceX plans to build, providing new insight into the ambitious project that will propel the company’s much-anticipated initial public offering (IPO).
In a 30-minute video shared on social media website
Musk also revealed a rendering containing specifications for what SpaceX is calling its AI1 satellite. This is the first version of the spacecraft the company plans to build as part of a network of about 1 million satellites that will perform complex computing for AI in Earth orbit.
Musk pointed out that the initial version of the satellite will have a giant solar panel spanning 70 meters and support a compute payload of 120 kilowatts on average and 150 kilowatts at peak.
Musk said building data center satellites is easier than building satellites to power satellite internet services, citing SpaceX’s experience building the Starlink system.
“AI satellites are basically made up of a bunch of solar cells and radiators, and they also need some laser links, but they don’t have all the super complex antennas that Starlink satellites have,” Musk said in the video.
“If you take those two things into account, the easiest thing to design is an AI satellite.”
Musk said data center satellites would need to be built larger than Starlink satellites.
Musk also unveiled a major planned expansion of SpaceX’s facility in Bastrop, Texas. The company is currently producing user terminals for the Starlink system.
The facility, dubbed “GigaSat” in a slide released by Musk on his social media website, will span 11 million square feet and more than 1,000 acres of land.
A gigasat consists of multiple warehouses used to manufacture the giant solar panels needed for data center satellites.
While the GigaSat expansion is massive, it still pales in comparison to the planned terra fabs.
Musk said in a video that the proposed TerraFab facility would be 100 million square feet, about 10 times the size of Tesla’s Gigafactory in Austin.
Musk’s neighbor, Wyoming-based LLC, is buying up land in Grimes County, Texas, where the TerraFab is slated to be built.
SpaceX’s plans to go public in what is shaping up to be the largest IPO in history is accelerating as it moves to build an AI data center satellite.
The effort is also part of Musk’s broader ambitions in the AI race. SpaceX’s newly acquired AI division has lagged behind competitors in developing chatbots, but Musk has instead chosen to focus on the infrastructure, both the chips and data centers that run them. — Bloomberg
