SpaceX Vow To Loft 1 Million AI Satellites Could Spark (A Financial) Doomsday Dive (Fortune, 5/31/26)

[highplainsdem]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinholdenplatt/2026/05/31/spacex-vow-to-loft-1-million-ai-satellites-could-spark-doomsday-dive/

Elon Musk’s plan to begin launching one million AI data center satellites into orbit in 2028 could trigger a financial catastrophe, sending SpaceX into a high-speed nosedive, say leading North American space scholars.

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Dr. Zubrin, who designed an early prototype of NASA’s Space Launch System Moon rocket, which just sent four Allied astronauts on a circumlunar space trek, says lofting satellites to host next-generation artificial intelligence models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini would be astronomically more expensive than terrestrial data centers.

During the countdown to the SpaceX IPO and listing, its commander-in-chief posted a mission statement on the outfit’s website stating: “Launching a constellation of a million satellites that operate as orbital data centers” would support “AI-driven applications for billions of people today and ensuring humanity’s multi-planetary future.”

Promising to launch the next-generation Starship super-capsule once every hour to rocket these satellites hundreds of kilometers above the Earth, Musk predicted: "My estimate is that within 2 to 3 years, the lowest cost way to generate AI compute will be in space.”

-snip-

Robert Zubrin, who founded the Mars Society and has known Musk for a quarter of a century, knows Musk is wrong about that. He says that "Launching a million satellite orbital data center constellation is fantasy."

Zubrin is pointing out that Musk's planned data centers in space would, because of launch costs, cost up to a hundred times as much per kilowatt hour as it does to generate power for data centers on Earth.

But these fantasies are Musk's sales pitch for the upcoming SpaceX IPO.

[LudwigPastorius]

1. This will never happen.

It's more Muskshit, spewed to distract from the data centers that SpaceXAI have built, and will build here on Earth.

[LastDemocratInSC]

2. He shouldn't tickle the Kessler dragon's tail.

[msongs]

3. maybe it is time to curtail the corporate use of space nt

[rampartd]

4. a million satellites, positions probably "proprietary"

he is building an impenetrable wall around the planet.

but seriously. launch every hour? a million satellites? this guy has been hitting the ketemine.

[littlemissmartypants]

5. What rocket will he use? Aren't he and Blue Origin both grounded right now due to explosions?

Will they just pay off the inspectors and keep moving fast and breaking things?

I hate that they don't believe our sky is part of our environment.

[BidenRocks]

6. When do we colonize Mars?

[DavidDvorkin]

7. The future of AI is powerful chips that do the job locally

On the desktop, not more and more ever huger data centers.

[dalton99a]

8. We won't have REAL AI until we put a billion SpaceX satellites between the Earth and Mars

and dig a Boring Company tunnel between Los Angeles and London