Key Points
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Space Exploration Technologies’ capital expenditures on AI far exceeded spending for its rocketry and Starlink businesses.
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Orbital data centers have promise, but the technological concept is unproven.
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SpaceX seems far more focused on building out terrestrial data centers at the moment.
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Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX) is best known for its Starlink satellite communications business and orbital launching services built around its reusable rocket technologies, but the company is actually positioning artificial intelligence (AI) as the most important pillar of its growth strategy. Within the category, SpaceX is looking to orbital data centers as a potentially revolutionary performance driver.
Orbital data centers could offer far more direct access to solar energy, alleviating power consumption concerns, and could also provide superior heat-diffusion solutions that eliminate the need for water-based cooling. On the other hand, it’s still unclear whether SpaceX’s major investments in the tech will pay off.
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SpaceX placed a $15.8 billion bet on AI last quarter
SpaceX is already significantly diversified, with operations across rocket-launching services, satellite-based internet and communications, and AI — but it’s clear that artificial intelligence is at the center of its growth ambitions. The second quarter saw SpaceX’s total capital expenditures (capex) come in at roughly $18.4 billion, with $15.8 billion in spending devoted to the company’s AI business. Meanwhile, capex for Starlink was $1.4 billion, and capex for its space and rockets business was $1.2 billion.
Orbital data centers have the potential to effectively address some of the biggest energy and resource challenges in scaling AI computing. Data centers positioned in orbit could also be ideal for meeting the computational needs of the space economy.
On the other hand, it would probably be a mistake to think that SpaceX needs to succeed with orbital data centers anytime soon to deliver wins for investors. Even a complete project failure wouldn’t necessarily be an insurmountable setback for the company.
While capital expenditures for the company’s AI unit totaled $15.8 billion last quarter, it’s unclear how much of that spending was devoted to developing orbital data centers. Notably, CEO Elon Musk was far more focused on terrestrial data centers during the company’s Q2 conference call — with the tech leader highlighting the advantages that the company’s expertise in rocketry and space technologies created for the engineering of data centers here on Earth.
Space-based data centers received relatively little focus in SpaceX’s Q2 report and conference call, which could suggest that they’re not expected to be a meaningful performance driver anytime soon. Given the heavy emphasis on terrestrial data centers in the call, there’s a good chance the company is focused on building out its AI infrastructure on Earth before turning to orbital data centers as a central component of its strategy.
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Keith Noonan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
