Elon Musk's SpaceX proposes orbital solar to power AI centers
Elon Musk is switching gears from Earth-based solar to harvesting solar energy in space, as SpaceX revealed in its IPO filing on May 22, 2026.
While Tesla used to push for a solar-powered economy, Musk's AI company xAI still relies on natural gas turbines and plans a big $2.8 billion expansion.
Even though xAI has invested $697 million in Tesla Megapacks for energy storage over the last two years, it hasn't really bought into Tesla's solar panels.
SpaceX touts fivefold orbital energy
SpaceX says its space solar tech can generate over five times more energy than panels on Earth thanks to nonstop sunlight in orbit.
The idea? Powering AI data centers up in space and sidestepping the limits and local pushback faced here on Earth.
Of course, there are still big hurdles, like high costs and tricky hardware maintenance, but SpaceX sees this as a way to keep up with the huge growth expected in AI computing power.