Elon Musk shared a detailed design for the AI1 satellite, SpaceX’s first AI data center satellite, during a 30-minute video presentation on June 8, 2026 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. The satellite features massive solar panels with a wingspan of about 70 meters (230 feet) to power its computing payload [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. It supports an average compute load of 120 kilowatts, peaking at 150 kilowatts [1, 2, 4, 5].
Musk explained that the AI satellites are simpler in design than Starlink satellites. "An AI satellite is essentially a lot of solar cells, a radiator, and you still need some laser links, but you don’t have all of the super complex antennas that you have on a Starlink satellite," he said [1]. He added they do not require "magical technology" beyond what SpaceX has already used on Starlink V3 satellites [5]. Musk said, "We don't think this is a super hard problem, compared to things we already do" [3].
SpaceX plans to build about one million of these AI data center satellites as an orbital network to support large-scale AI computing off Earth [1, 2, 4]. Putting AI data centers in orbit aims to overcome the power constraints that ground-based centers face [5].
To support production, SpaceX is constructing the 'Gigasat' factory in Bastrop, Texas. The facility will span more than 11 million square feet to manufacture the giant solar panels needed for the satellites [1, 3, 5]. The company is also jointly building the Terafab semiconductor fabrication plant with Tesla and Intel. Terafab will be about 10 million square feet, roughly 10 times the size of Tesla's Austin gigafactory [1, 3].
Currently, the AI1 satellites will use Nvidia GPUs, but SpaceX plans to switch to radiation-hardened chips produced by Terafab in the future [3].
SpaceX’s planned initial public offering is scheduled for June 12, 2026. It targets a valuation near $1.75 trillion, driven in part by the AI data center satellite project [3, 5].
The Gigasat factory is expected to reach meaningful production volume by late 2027, coinciding with market forecasts that predict the global satellite industry will reach $447 billion by the end of that year [3, 4, 5].
