In its S-1 filing ahead of its initial public offering (IPO), Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX +1.61%) showed its ambitions were far grander than space. Of the $28.5 trillion total addressable market (TAM) it forecasted, $26.5 trillion of that opportunity was in artificial intelligence (AI).
That said, the company is still typically viewed by many as a space company. But that narrow scope could mean missing out on the long-term opportunity SpaceX could offer if it executes on its vision and captures as much of that $26.5 trillion TAM that is possible.
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An early AI edge on display
Ahead of the SpaceX IPO, the AI start-up Anthropic announced a deal with SpaceX to rent out all the compute capacity at its Colossus 1 data center for $1.2 billion per month.
Then, another deal was announced in which Alphabet will pay SpaceX $920 million per month to also rent compute capacity. Both deals allow SpaceX to turn AI infrastructure into revenue, something it could potentially accomplish on an even larger scale through space-based data centers.
Space Exploration Technologies
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Going beyond ground-based data centers
With ground-based data centers, there are many issues connected to getting one up and running. Those issues range from depleting water resources to noise pollution to straining traditional power grids. That last part, access to power, is increasingly becoming the bottleneck for companies trying to run AI workloads, and energy needs for data centers are only expected to increase.
According to research from The Motley Fool:
U.S. data centers consumed an estimated 177 to 192 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in 2024 — roughly 4% to 5% of all U.S. electricity — and could consume 9% to 17% by 2030 under scenarios developed by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). The updated range is about 60% higher than EPRI’s own projections from 18 months earlier. But most of that energy usage is from conventional data centers.
A workaround, especially for gaining access to power, may be found through space-based data centers. In January, SpaceX applied to launch one million satellites into orbit that could serve as data centers, which can be powered by the sun. That will help address the challenge of finding power sources for ground-based data centers.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shared an early version of what those satellites could look like, which the company is calling AI1. They would feature solar panels spanning 230 feet, and SpaceX expects to deploy orbital data centers as early as 2028.
An AI company with space operations
SpaceX is establishing the infrastructure needed to become a dominant AI company. While its AI division accounted for only $3.2 billion in revenue in 2025, Goldman Sachs forecast that it will jump to $322 billion by 2030, with total revenue of $474 billion.
However, that upside potential also comes with plenty of risk. SpaceX lost $4.6 billion in 2023, reported net income of $791 million in 2024, and then once again reported a net loss of $4.9 billion in 2025. Its AI ambitions also account for a large share of its capital expenditures. In 2025, its AI spending reached $12.7 billion, compared to $3.8 billion for its space segment and $4.1 billion for its connectivity division.
SpaceX could establish the new wave of AI infrastructure, capturing the revenue and upside that it offers. But it won’t be cheap, there are plenty of risks, and there will be volatile trading ahead until those space-based data centers become commercialized.
