Musk discussed the possibility of launching 1 million tons of AI satellites into space every year on the social platform The founder of Ark Investment Management Company (ARK Invest) posted on This is ARK's base case forecast, while its bull and bear case forecasts are around $3.1 trillion and $1.7 trillion respectively.

Musk responded: “There’s a major additional factor that should be considered.

Satellites with localized AI computation, whose results will be beamed back from low-latency sun-synchronous orbits, will be the lowest-cost way to generate AI bitstreams within 3 years.

By far, this will also be the fastest way to scale within 4 years, as it is already difficult to find simple sources of electricity on Earth. 1 million tons/year of satellites at 100 kW each, adding 100 GW of AI per year, with no operating or maintenance costs, connected to the Starlink constellation via high-bandwidth lasers.

More advanced would be to build satellite factories on the moon and use massive drives (electromagnetic railguns) to accelerate AI satellites to lunar escape velocity without the need for rockets. This is equivalent to more than 100 terawatts of artificial intelligence per year and would enable human civilization to make significant progress toward becoming a Kardashev Type II civilization. "


Musk added in a separate post: "Once there are lunar factories, robots and large-scale drives on the moon, the whole cycle will close and the system will likely be decoupled from traditional currencies and run autonomously in watts and tonnages."


One netizen commented: "Elon Musk is talking about putting 1 million tons of Starlink satellites for AI computing into orbit every year. As a background, we currently launch about 3,000 tons of satellites into orbit every year, most of which are already SpaceX satellites. 1 million tons means launching more than 25 Starship spacecraft every day!"


Another netizen dug up a post from Musk in August this year: "In about 6 to 7 years, the Starship spacecraft will be launched more than 24 times in 24 hours."

The netizen commented: "He said before that the Starship spacecraft will be launched 24 times in 24 hours, so he is right. He has been telling us his plan."

Musk responded: "Yes."


In an interview with Tesla investor Ron Barron last month, Musk said he saw a feasible technological path to putting 100 gigawatts of solar-powered AI satellites into orbit each year, saying it could be the lowest-cost way to drive and operate AI at scale.