The Zhitong Finance App learned that SpaceX (SPCX.US) CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday refuted claims that terrestrial solar energy was compared to orbital solar energy. Currently, the company is stepping up efforts to launch data centers into space.
Musk posted an article on the X platform saying, “100 gigawatts in space is about 800 gigawatts on Earth.” He also said that terrestrial solar energy “must be equipped with large-scale batteries to continuously supply computing power at night, and is complemented by combustion or nuclear power in winter,” and concluded from this that the two solutions “are not at all the same thing.”
This statement follows SpaceX's newly announced collaboration with German equipment manufacturer Singulus Technologies (Singulus Technologies).
Earlier this week, Singulus confirmed a contract worth more than 60 million euros to provide SpaceX with a complete heterojunction (HJT) solar cell production line. The delivery target is for the first half of 2027, and it will land at a facility in Bastrop, Texas. Musk has said that this larger order covers 100 gigawatts of HJT manufacturing equipment per year.
Under the agreement, Singulus will develop high-performance solar cells and related production equipment for SpaceX's StarMind satellite. StarMind is a solar satellite constellation planned by SpaceX to run artificial intelligence loads in orbit. For the energy-intensive Starmind architecture, reliable and efficient solar energy is essential. The goal of this architecture is to deploy large-scale AI computing power into orbit.
Unlike Starlink (Starlink), which mainly transports broadband traffic, Starmind satellites are positioned as orbital data centers that use solar energy to process computing power missions in outer space, thereby circumventing the ground's restrictions on AI infrastructure expansion in terms of electricity, land, cooling, and space.
Musk has previously said that data centers in space will eventually surpass terrestrial infrastructure. SpaceX has submitted an application to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking permission to operate up to 1 million Starmind satellites. The first satellites are expected to be launched in the second half of next year.