SpaceX executives say the company aims to launch the first demonstrations of a space-based artificial intelligence computing infrastructure by the end of 2027, ahead of the 2028 deployment timeline disclosed in its IPO filing, said two sources who participated in investor presentations held ahead of the offering.
The orbital computing initiative is key to SpaceX’s long-term growth case made to investors. The company claims in its IPO documents that it is “the only company with a commercially viable path to building orbital AI computing at scale.”
SpaceX has requested permission from regulators to launch up to 1 million space data center satellites.
Study abroad
Upgrade your career!
During two investor presentations ahead of the IPO, both attended by President Gwynne Shotwell and Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen, SpaceX executives laid out a roadmap to begin demonstrating orbital computing capabilities in 2027, according to the sources.
While the IPO filing indicates that orbital data center deployments could begin as early as 2028, it does not distinguish between demonstration missions and commercial deployments.
Shotwell and Johnsen, who have been meeting with major investment banks to pitch a $75 billion fundraising in the company’s initial public offering targeting a $1.75 trillion valuation, described the initial deployments as demonstration systems intended to validate the technology before any broader commercial rollout, the sources said.
One of them interpreted the schedule in the IPO request as a margin of maneuver for possible delays in the development of the Starship spacecraft or in the manufacture of satellites.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
SpaceX shares are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq on Friday under the symbol SPCX, with the IPO price estimated at $135 per share.
Continues after advertising
Starship delays
Starship, the reusable spacecraft underpinning the company’s plans for orbital computing, remains years behind SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s original goals and has not yet demonstrated the rapid reusability needed to make large-scale deployment economically viable.
Musk has faced project delays at many of the companies he runs, but many involve challenges of an open-ended nature that are particularly difficult to resolve, said Michael Monaghan, partner and portfolio manager at Founder ETFs, who was not at the meetings.
“I think that orbital data centers, although they are a difficult problem, have some limits, which, to me, gives greater confidence that the deadlines set will be met.”
Continues after advertising
In a video released on Monday, Musk said that building orbital AI data centers is not a difficult engineering challenge, as much of the necessary technology already exists in its current Starlink satellite network.
The first version of the AI satellite will likely use Nvidia chips and the computing power will be equivalent to that of an Nvidia GB300 rack, the chief executive said.
