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Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers

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Re: Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers

#131
post #103

What exactly is SpaceX's core business?

Its main business is connectivity. Starlink generated over 10B last year. Becoming a broader infrastructure company with xAI.

> Starlink generated over 10B last year

An entire one-hundredth of their proposed valuation!

Re: Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is Google competing with SpaceX?

If you look at the IPO filings you’ll see that Spacex as we know it is just a small part of the expected revenue generator. It is supposedly Grok and AI, hence Google competitor.

I can’t believe serious people use Grok. It has to be propped up by Twitter usage/Musk fans right? It really strikes me as the worst one.

Re: Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is Google competing with SpaceX?

They’re both AI companies

One of which has more capacity and wants even more, one of which has less capacity and is renting it out.

Re: Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers

#134

“If we fail to deliver access to the committed amount of GPUs by September 30, 2026, then following a one-month grace period, Google may immediately terminate the agreement or accept the number of GPUs provided, with a corresponding pro rata reduction in the monthly fees. After December 31, 2026, the agreement may be terminated by either party upon 90 days' notice.” https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1181412/000…

Either that or SpaceX is permanently turning xAI's assets into a neocloud because xAI itself has no traction. The whole thing looks rather desperate. I wonder what SpaceX's margins are on these contracts.

SpaceX has recently started pitching itself as an orbital datacenter company.

If you buy into that business model (or pretend to), it makes sense for SpaceX to start selling compute early. Their "earthside compute" clients of today are "skyside compute" clients of tomorrow.

A part of Musk's old pitch for Starlink was: space-based solar makes perfect sense for powering space assets, and no sense whatsoever for powering Earth assets. So you have to find a way to use that power in space to do something economically useful. Comms were the only scalable way to do that, so Starlink it was.

I can see how space-based datacenters would follow the same logic. If SpaceX can make them economical, that is. There's no guarantees of that - but if anyone at all can make space-based datacenters economical, it's SpaceX.

Re: Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers

#135
post #107

Sorry, what? Does this mean that SpaceX are the only company that really did build some datacenters to put all the million of GPU/TPU/whatever they all talk about everyday? I mean, Google, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft told investors they spent more than $1B per day last year in CapEx... why on Earth do they (well, Google and Anthropic at least) need to rent compute to SpaceX, of all companies?

Yes but someone will be along shortly to defuse what sounds like giving the bad mars man credit where it’s due. Like everything else he does that works out, it was just luck, timing, actually a mistake that worked out, or someone else behind the scenes that he got lucky in hiring at the right time (by accident).

People with access to enormous wealth tend to get a lot of chances at the betting table.

Re: Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but someone will be along shortly to defuse what sounds like giving the bad mars man credit where it’s due. Like everything else he does that works out, it was just luck, timing, actually a mistake that worked out, or someone else behind the scenes that he got lucky in hiring at the right time (by accident).

If he’s so smart why isn’t grok using all that capacity?

Building excess capacity from the start and selling it for a billion a month to constrained competitors. I only wish I could be so dumb.

Re: Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers

#137
post #106

Is there any data on whether Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Anthropic, OpenAI etc are most cost efficient in getting datacenter compute online and operating it? I'd be interested in how large the range is here across company and region and specific data center and how it relates to companies like Hetzner if at all.

I’ve seen some numbers related to datacenters in Ireland and they would stress price per MW as a way to see where to build them. But then you have depreciation of equipment as well. Depreciation can be played with when filing taxes though.

Re: Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers

#140
post #107

Sorry, what? Does this mean that SpaceX are the only company that really did build some datacenters to put all the million of GPU/TPU/whatever they all talk about everyday? I mean, Google, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft told investors they spent more than $1B per day last year in CapEx... why on Earth do they (well, Google and Anthropic at least) need to rent compute to SpaceX, of all companies?

No, CoreWeave for example also rent compute to the big AI companies. This likely just means Grok has few users so they need to rent their extra capacity to their competitors.
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