Elon Musk: Future Starlink satellites to become orbiting data centers

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is suggesting they might one day also be used as orbiting data centers, El.kz cites uk.pcmag.com.

Creating a network of orbiting data centers would be no easy task. But according to Musk, SpaceX already has a foundation with the company’s next-generation V3 Starlink satellites, which are designed to beam gigabitinternet. "Simply scaling up Starlink V3 satellites, which have high-speed laser links, would work,” he tweeted. “SpaceX will be doing this."

This comes amid growing discussions about building power-hungry AI data centers in space to mitigate the environmental impact on Earth. SpaceX's proposed V3 satellites require SpaceX's Starship vehicle for launch, which is still in testing. An earlier regulatory filing from the company indicates that each V3 could weigh up to 2,000 kilograms (4,409 pounds), or almost four times the current mass of the V2 Mini Starlink satellites. 

Musk’s tweet suggests SpaceX could make them even larger to host more built-in computing. A customer could then remotely connect to the Starlink satellites—which already possess high-speed connectivity—and run AI training workloads.