Musk predicts more AI capacity will be in orbit than on earth in 5 years, with SpaceX becoming a ‘hyper-hyper’ scaler

By the beginning of the next decade, AI will primarily become a space-based venture as the cost becomes much more advantageous to operate in orbit, according to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

In a lengthy, wide-ranging interview with podcaster Dwarkesh Patel and Stripe cofounder and president John Collison on Thursday, the tech billionaire made some of his signature bold predictions about how the AI revolution will play out.

Given the enormous energy needs of AI and limits on available land for placing massive arrays of solar panels—not to mention all the red tape—building new AI data centers will be much cheaper in orbit, where solar panels are five times as effective as on the ground.

“In 36 months, but probably closer to 30 months, the most economically compelling place to put AI will be space,” Musk said. “It will then get ridiculously better to be in space. The only place you can really scale is space. Once you start thinking in terms of what percentage of the sun’s power you are harnessing, you realize you have to go to space. You can’t scale very much on earth.”

The utility industry isn’t able currently to build power plants as rapidly as needed for AI, he adde...