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xAI joins SpaceX

spacex.com

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Re: xAI joins SpaceX

#111

Post by modeless »

People pooh-poohing space datacenters will obviously think this is a bad move. But Elon clearly believes space datacenters will work. Given that, and the fact that SpaceX will IPO this year, this acquisition was inevitable.

SpaceX and xAI would not be able to freely collaborate on space datacenters after the IPO because it would be self-dealing. SpaceX likes to be vertically integrated, so they wouldn't want to just be a contractor for OpenAI's or Anthropic's infrastructure. Merging before the IPO is the only way that SpaceX could remain vertically integrated as they build space datacenters.

Re: xAI joins SpaceX

#112

Post by pantalaimon »

alangibson wrote: post #89

Either this is a straight up con, or Musk found a glitch in physics. It's extremely difficult to keep things cold in space.

Existing satellites manage to keep their equipment that already can consume several kW cool just fine.

You might need space for radiators, but there is plenty space in space.

Re: xAI joins SpaceX

#113

Post by SimianSci »

The Goalpost shift continues, If elon were working for me, I would have fired him for having never delivered on any of his projects.

Hyperloop > Neuralink > Self-Driving Cars > Robotaxi fleets > Personal Robots > Orbital Datacenters > [Insert next]

Re: xAI joins SpaceX

#115

Post by jopsen »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #81
jopsen wrote: post #57

> In the long term, space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale. I never questioned it. Space is also extremely cold, and if it's as dense as Musk cooling won't be an issue.

I can't tell how many layers of sarcasm are here, but I just want to highlight that aktshually cooling in space is quite difficult because there is no convection, so the only cooling option is radiative. Which gets a bit hard when the satellite gets blasted by the sun. The ISS doesn't have problems staying warm, it has problems cooling off.

> the only cooling option is radiative.

It does say he's planning an AI sun, I'm guessing that's the temperature you need to run at for radiation to work.

Re: xAI joins SpaceX

#116

Post by umeshunni »

alangibson wrote: post #89

Either this is a straight up con, or Musk found a glitch in physics. It's extremely difficult to keep things cold in space.

> It's extremely difficult to keep things cold in space.

This is one of those things that's not obvious till you think about it.

Re: xAI joins SpaceX

#117

Post by wongarsu »

rybosworld wrote: post #70

> The basic math is that launching a million tons per year of satellites generating 100 kW of compute power per ton would add 100 gigawatts of AI compute capacity annually, with no ongoing operational or maintenance needs. Ultimately, there is a path to launching 1 TW/year from Earth. > My estimate is that within 2 to 3 years, the lowest cost way to generate AI compute will be in space. This is so obviously false. Fo…

You operate them like Microsoft's submerged data center project: you don't do maintenance, whatever fails fails. You start with enough redundancy in critical components like power and networking and accept that compute resources will slowly decrease as nodes fail

No operational needs is obviously ... simplified. You still need to manage downlink capacity, station keeping, collision avoidance, etc. But for a large constellation the per-satellite cost of that would be pretty small.

Re: xAI joins SpaceX

#118

Post by w4der »

protastus wrote: post #106
Buttons840 wrote: post #50

SpaceX is too big to fail. It's important for national security. I wonder if Elon wants to tangle all his businesses into SpaceX so they are all kept afloat by SpaceX's importance.

Elon can't legally financially entangle Tesla to SpaceX due to Tesla being a public company, so his hands are tied. Tesla is clearly benefiting from protectionism and its sales would collapse if BYD were allowed to openly sell in the US. Most people just want affordable, maintainable and reliable cars.

BYD are just affordable and maybe reliable, regarding maintenance their spares are hard to come by and are almost as hard to work with as Tesla and other brands.

Re: xAI joins SpaceX

#119

Post by dahinds »

alangibson wrote: post #89

Either this is a straight up con, or Musk found a glitch in physics. It's extremely difficult to keep things cold in space.

This isn't really true, though? The ISS does it with radiators that are ~1/2 the area of its solar panels, and both should scale linearly with power?

Re: xAI joins SpaceX

#120

Post by senko »

As a SpaceX fan, I am saddened by this news.

The only reason for xAI to join SpaceX is to offload Elon's Twitter debt in the upcoming IPO.

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