SpaceX has released its first public financial report.
In its financial report, SpaceX officially announced a partnership with NVIDIA to launch the orbital AI computing network—Starmind.
This time, Musk will use a vast network of satellites beyond Earth's atmosphere to build a "space AI brain" with infinite scalability, infinite energy, and absolute zero heat dissipation!
Starmind has moved AI's computational foundation from the earth's surface into space.
Elon Musk plans to use this interstellar computing network to completely solve AI's power consumption and heat dissipation concerns. Indeed, Earth is no longer big enough for him.
Everyone assumed Musk’s ultimate goal was Mars, but on his way there, he inadvertently reshaped the entire global landscape of AI computing power.
This image was created by AI.
Escape Earth: Breaking the Deadlock of AI Computing Power
The financial results revealed in this report are impressive: revenue surged 92% to $7.8 billion. Starlink users more than doubled, surpassing 12 million.
However, these data are far less compelling than those from the interstellar computing network.
Today, AI development is facing a dead end—lack of electricity, lack of water, lack of land.
A large AI data center consumes as much electricity as a medium-sized city. Earth’s energy grid is barely able to keep up with AI’s rapid evolution.
Musk said: Since Earth can't hold it all, let's put it in space!
In SpaceX's latest blueprint, the Starmind project presents a brilliant solution—
Launch data centers equipped with NVIDIA's most advanced chips into a sun-synchronous orbit!
Why space? Musk gave a bold explanation in the interview.
First, there is always sunlight in space.
70% of the Earth's surface is water, and even on the remaining land, the amount of high-quality area suitable for installing solar panels is extremely limited.
“If aliens came here, they’d probably wonder, ‘It’s all water—why call it Earth?’” Musk joked.
In the Sun-synchronous orbit in space, there is no night, no weather interference, and no atmospheric attenuation. AI satellites can be continuously bathed in pure solar energy 24/7, achieving energy densities several times higher than those on Earth.
The second reason is perfect vacuum heat dissipation.
Data centers on Earth consume astronomical amounts of energy for liquid cooling and air conditioning. In space, however, heat dissipation is solved effortlessly—waste heat can be directly radiated into the vast, frigid vacuum of space!
Therefore, Starmind satellites do not require the high-energy cooling towers, fans, or dry coolers found on Earth.
Even more impressive, SpaceX leveraged its extensive experience operating spacecraft in space to design a deployable liquid radiator with an area of up to 160 square meters, reducing the cooling energy consumption of the computing cluster by an order of magnitude.
Additionally, if you want to build a large computing center on Earth, you need to go through land approval processes, deal with environmental protests, and there’s no guarantee the power grid can handle it.
But in space, Musk smiled slightly—no land rental fees, no one showing up at your door with protest signs. Solar power is free, vacuum cooling is free, and operational costs approach zero!
Starmind AI1: A "space computing behemoth" with a wingspan of 75 meters
A space data center is not simply about putting an Earth-based server room in a metal shell and launching it into space—clearly not.
The first computing node developed by SpaceX and NVIDIA—the Starmind AI1 satellite—is truly a masterpiece of space-based industrial engineering!
According to the disclosed technical details, this satellite is essentially a behemoth.
Its wingspan reaches 75 meters (nearly the length of a soccer field).
The solar array has a maximum output power of 210 kW.
The payload's peak power reaches 150 kW, with an average power of 120 kW.
150 kilowatts, perfectly matching the power consumption of an entire NVIDIA GB300 supercomputing rack!
Elon Musk has clearly stated: "SpaceX is currently committed to using NVIDIA GPUs exclusively because they are the best."
These satellites will carry NVIDIA’s yet-to-be-widely-deployed Rubin GPUs and Vera CPUs to begin intense computations in space.
Someone might ask: Won’t placing the server that high cause network latency to become unbearable?
This is precisely where SpaceX's true moat lies—the Starlink network.
Starmind satellites do not have the complex phased-array antennas found on Starlink; they are purely "computing satellites." They connect directly to the existing Starlink constellation via terabit-speed laser links.
"People always worry about high latency in space computing," Musk scoffed in the interview. "But the speed of light is very fast."
The AI satellite is only 600 to 800 kilometers above the Earth's surface, and light travels 300 kilometers per millisecond. This means the physical latency from the space-based computing center to your phone or computer is just a mere 3 milliseconds!
At this speed, distance is no longer an issue.
In the future, you’ll be able to ask questions directly to xAI’s Grok large model from your phone—your queries will travel via Starlink to NVIDIA’s computing clusters in space, receive instant inference, and return to your screen.
And all of this is completely free from the constraints of ground-based power grids and fiber optic cables!
Elon Musk's Confidence: Starship and the Trillion-Dollar Manufacturing Powerhouse
Why can only Musk accomplish this? Why are other tech giants stuck competing on Earth?
SpaceX Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen cut to the chase: “Without extremely low-cost, fully and rapidly reusable heavy-lift rockets, a space AI brain is pure fantasy.”
The most crucial piece of the puzzle for Musk is Starship.
During the recently concluded V3 test flight, Starship demonstrated its capabilities. It is the largest, heaviest, and most powerful vehicle ever built by humans, with more than twice the thrust of the Apollo-era Saturn V.
Traditional rockets have extremely high costs for delivering supplies into space, while Starship aims to launch, land, and relaunch within a single day, like a commercial airliner.
Today, nearly 90% of global orbital mass is delivered by SpaceX’s Falcon rocket family. With Starship, SpaceX aims to increase its annual launch capacity from 2,500 tons to 1 million tons per year within approximately three years.
Without the massive carrying capacity of Starship, it would be impossible to launch tens of thousands of AI satellites, each weighing several tons, into orbit.
To support this “space city-building” initiative, SpaceX is undergoing an epic expansion of its manufacturing capabilities—building the Gigasat super-factory in Bastrop, Texas, with plans to achieve mass production of thousands of AI satellites by the end of 2027.
But that’s not enough. To support the annual demand for hundreds of gigawatts (GW)—and ultimately one terawatt (TW, equal to 1,000 GW)—of space-based AI computing power, SpaceX and Tesla have jointly planned an astonishing Terafab project.
Its footprint will reach an astonishing 100 million square feet—ten times the size of Tesla’s massive Texas Gigafactory.
Musk’s business ecosystem is fully demonstrated here—
Starlink's massive cash flow -> Funding Starship development -> Starship deploys vast numbers of Starmind satellites into space -> Building a space-based AI brain to empower xAI -> Generating higher-dimensional profits.
Each step seamlessly connects to the next, forming a perfect closed loop that no competitor can replicate—only he can achieve it.
And even more frightening—each stage is open to competitors.
Competitors can purchase SpaceX’s launch services, use Starlink’s communications, or even rent computing power on Starmind. But Musk doesn’t care—because when you’re the infrastructure across every赛道, you are the赛道 itself.
Elon Musk's ambitions:
Climbing the Kardashev Scale toward a Type III Civilization
Is Musk doing this to make money by selling AI services? That would be underestimating him.
In an internal conversation, Musk introduced a highly sci-fi, almost religiously sacred grand narrative—the Kardashev Scale.
This is an objective standard in cosmic sociology for measuring the level of development of a civilization.
Type I civilization: Capable of harnessing the total energy of its home planet (Earth).
Type II civilization: Capable of harnessing the entire energy output of its host star (the Sun).
Type III Civilization: Capable of harnessing the energy of an entire galaxy.
Musk pointed out: "Where are we on the Kardashev Scale? The answer is nowhere. The energy we harness is less than one trillionth of the Sun’s output. If we were being observed by an alien civilization, we would be failing completely."
Starmind Interstellar Computing Network is the first concrete step toward humanity becoming a Type II civilization.
Elon Musk's goal is to deliver 10 gigawatts (GW) of computing power to space annually within two and a half years, and 100 gigawatts within three and a half years.
His ultimate goal is one terawatt (1 TW, or 1,000 gigawatts) of space-based computing power! Keep in mind, this is equivalent to twice the entire annual electricity consumption of the United States today!
At the end of the interview, SpaceX executive Dan Huot asked Musk a question that sounded like science fiction: “What’s next after we’ve pushed things to the limit on Earth?”
Elon Musk's response stunned everyone: "Why stop at one terawatt? That's too small."
His vision is to establish a mass driver and chip factory on the Moon.
To achieve a thousand times more computing power than one terawatt, launching from Earth is no longer sufficient. He plans to mine resources directly on the Moon, using lunar surface materials to manufacture solar panels and heat sinks, and even produce AI chips on-site.
Because the Moon has no atmosphere and only one-sixth of Earth's gravity, SpaceX will use a large linear motor, similar to an electromagnetic railgun, to launch pre-built AI satellites directly from the lunar surface into deep space—without any rocket fuel.
If we can send this much mass to the Moon, it means—anyone can go to the Moon.
This is Musk.
While many are still fearful of "whether AI will replace humans," he is already thinking—
How to expand human consciousness across the entire solar system, and how to ascend on the Kardashev Scale from that insignificant speck to a species worthy of even a glance from an alien civilization.
Musk, sow civilization among the stars
Whether it’s Mars colonization, brain-computer interfaces, AGI, or today’s “space AI brain,” every goal Musk proposes initially sounds insane.
But as SpaceX Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said—
After working with Elon for 15 years, the most remarkable thing is that he sets seemingly outrageous goals, then jumps into the trenches with you to personally tackle the toughest technical bottlenecks. Step by step, you realize you’re genuinely making progress toward that goal—and every promise he makes, he delivers on.
Within 122 days, he built the world’s largest xAI supercomputer, "Colossus"; Starship achieved the stunning recovery of "catching a rocket with chopsticks"; and Starlink has woven a seamless network across the entire globe.
Now, he has laid out the plans for Starmind again.
When NVIDIA's computing power takes flight on SpaceX's Starship, the most intense and monumental revolution in the history of human technology is already unfolding beyond the atmosphere.
Earth may indeed be nothing more than the cradle of human civilization.
And Musk is personally building that "superbrain" capable of illuminating the stars and oceans.
As Musk said: "Humans who haven't even reached a microsol are ready to start thinking like a civilization worthy of the universe." Starmind is just the first step.
2027, see you in space.
Reference materials:
https://x.com/SpaceX/status/2084723854534951218
https://x.com/openlabxorg/status/2084732002645987402
https://www.spacex.com/spacexai/starmind
Edited by: Aeneas
This article is from the WeChat public account "New Intelligence Yuan," authored by ASI Revelation.