On the occasion of its upcoming launch in the capital market, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk officially announced the detailed parameters of the company's first-generation orbital AI data center satellite AI1. This is a new large-scale satellite with a wingspan of nearly 70 meters after deployment and a width wider than a Boeing 747-8 passenger aircraft. It will serve as one of the core of SpaceX's space computing business and the upcoming record-setting IPO narrative.
According to reports, the AI1 satellite has a height of about 20 meters and an unfolded wingspan of about 70 meters (about 229.6 feet). When operating in a low-Earth orbit of 600 kilometers, it can provide a continuous computing load of about 120 kilowatts, with a peak power consumption of up to 150 kilowatts. This translates into about 70 kilowatts of computing power per ton. Musk compared its power level to Nvidia's new generation GB300 cabinet, which has a rated power consumption of about 140 kilowatts. SpaceX describes that each AI1 is actually an entire cabinet of AI servers "wrapped" by solar arrays, cooling systems, communications, propulsion and protective structures and sent into orbit.
In terms of computing power chip configuration, the computing cabin of AI1 adopts a replaceable modular design. SpaceX can use NVIDIA GPUs in the early stage, and in the future, it can be replaced with chips from other suppliers based on process and performance evolution. SpaceX Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said that the first batch of orbital data centers will be based on Nvidia hardware, and the long-term plan is to switch to radiation-resistant chips from Terafab. This semiconductor project is jointly promoted by SpaceX, Tesla and Intel, aiming to create a new generation of computing chips suitable for the space environment.
Heat dissipation is another major technical difficulty faced by the Orbital AI data center. Ground data centers can rely on air, water or liquid cooling loops to export large amounts of waste heat, but in the near-vacuum space environment, AI1 can only release heat in the form of infrared radiation. To this end, AI1 adopts a large-area liquid-cooled heat dissipation structure. The design can deploy a deployable liquid heat dissipation plate of up to about 110 square meters. It integrates redundant pump circuits and is equipped with micrometeoroid protection of fluid channels to reduce the risk of damage by tiny cosmic debris. The report pointed out that the cooling medium is unlikely to use water, and is more likely to use fluids such as ammonia, which are more common on spacecraft, to meet the needs of heat conduction and low-temperature conditions.
Musk emphasized that compared with some of SpaceX's previous radical projects, AI1 is not a "moon landing" gamble. It uses a large number of proven technologies on the Starlink V3 satellite platform, including solar arrays and thermal management systems, thereby reducing R&D and deployment risks. SpaceX engineer Ian Dahl also said that AI1 is overall even more streamlined than Starlink broadband satellites because it no longer requires a large phased array communication antenna, and its main tasks focus on computing power and energy and heat dissipation management.
The large-scale solar components required for AI1 will be supplied by SpaceX's new Gigasat factory in Bastrop, Texas, which covers an area of approximately 11 million square feet. Musk said it is expected to achieve "meaningful capacity output" by the end of next year to support subsequent batch launch plans. At the same time, the reusable Starship heavy rocket is regarded as another key puzzle to realize the idea of this orbital data center. It will be responsible for sending enough solar panels, radiators and computing power modules into orbit, thereby diluting the launch cost of a single satellite.
Previously, SpaceX has proposed in its integration with its AI company xAI that the scale of orbital data center satellites in future plans may be as high as 1 million, and will connect narratives such as rocket launches, Starlink satellite Internet, AI computing power, and Mars immigration into a unified business story, which will be written into IPO-related documents. According to disclosed data, SpaceX’s revenue last year was approximately US$18.7 billion, but its net loss was approximately US$4.94 billion. The orbital AI data center business is regarded as one of its important bets for achieving greater growth in the future.
From a capital market perspective, this technical disclosure of AI1 is also a “road show” for potential investors. SpaceX plans to raise approximately US$75 billion in this IPO, corresponding to an overall valuation of approximately US$1.75 trillion. If it proceeds smoothly, the transaction will likely become one of the largest IPOs in history. The stock is expected to be listed on Nasdaq under the stock code "SPCX".