During a recent staff meeting at artificial-intelligence company xAI, CEO Elon Musk reportedly told employees that he wants to build an AI satellite factory on the moon, The New York Times reports. Musk also said he wants a giant catapult at the factory that would launch those satellites into space.
A representative for xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This isn’t the first time the tech mogul has toyed with the idea of moving operating facilities to space.
“Current advances in AI are dependent on large terrestrial data centers, which require immense amounts of power and cooling,” Musk said in a statement last week after his companies SpaceX and xAI merged. “Global electricity demand for AI simply cannot be met with terrestrial solutions, even in the near term, without imposing hardship on communities and the environment. In the long term, space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale.”
And this “space-based AI” could happen sooner rather than later if it’s up to the billionaire.
“By far the cheapest place to put AI will be space in 36 months or less,” Musk reportedly said during a recent appearance on the podcast Cheeky Pint.
If the moon mission is successful, Musk seems to have his eye on establishing a colony on Mars next. For years, he has described involvement with Mars as a necessary step in safeguarding humanity’s future, framing space colonization as both a necessary backup plan and the next frontier of exploration.
