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

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

#271

Post by MrMorden » Sat, Jun 06, 2026, 3:09 PM UTC

kennywinker wrote: post #220

ACCount37 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes: computation. Famous for annihilating water. Every bit you flip consumes an H2O molecule.

Well, how do you cool servers in space then? Evaporative cooling is the way it happens down on earth - and that shuttles h2o molecules from dense useful clumps like aquifers and rivers to a less useful form spread out in the air. But evaporating h2o isn’t an option in space afaik - since there’s a shortage of air to take up the h2o. In fact I think radiative cooling is the only actual option in space.

That's the neat thing: you don't, or at least not in the megawatt range. A kilowatt can be done with radiative cooling but doesn't get you far with a hypothetical datacenter satellite.

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

#272

Post by noir_lord » Sat, Jun 06, 2026, 3:12 PM UTC

tristanj wrote: post #205

This is a masterful piece of financial engineering by Google and SpaceX. Google purchased 10% of SpaceX over a decade ago. After dilution they probably own around 5%. SpaceX is valued at a whopping 94x revenue. This deal increases SpaceX's revenue by $11 billion per year. If SpaceX maintains this revenue multiplier, then this single deal boosts SpaceX's valuation by 94 x 11 billion = $1 trillion dollars. Google owns…

> Truly a brilliant deal for everyone involved.

Except for people who have pensions/investments in whole market class investments who become exposed to an over valued company with a propped up value.

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

#273

Post by benl » Sat, Jun 06, 2026, 3:18 PM UTC

noir_lord wrote: post #272

tristanj wrote: post #205

This is a masterful piece of financial engineering by Google and SpaceX. Google purchased 10% of SpaceX over a decade ago. After dilution they probably own around 5%. SpaceX is valued at a whopping 94x revenue. This deal increases SpaceX's revenue by $11 billion per year. If SpaceX maintains this revenue multiplier, then this single deal boosts SpaceX's valuation by 94 x 11 billion = $1 trillion dollars. Google owns…

> Truly a brilliant deal for everyone involved. Except for people who have pensions/investments in whole market class investments who become exposed to an over valued company with a propped up value.

If whole market means whole market, then such investments are exposed to companies who are fairly valued, companies who are massively overvalued, and companies who are massively undervalued, and the whole range in between.

If you want to start picking and choosing which companies are overvalued and which are undervalued, don’t invest in whole market funds. But most people are not good at that!

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

#274

Post by hirako2000 » Sat, Jun 06, 2026, 3:26 PM UTC

raphaelj wrote: post #189

hirako2000 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That's only about 35% more than the main telecom operator here in Belgium (Proximus: $7.2B revenue in 2025, $2.5B market cap, positive earnings for 15+ years). Obviously Starlink can and will growth. I'm just pointing out how insane the market cap is, when compared to similar scale "connectivity" businesses.

I'm with you the 5B loss for 18B overall revenue shouldn't grant a valuation anywhere near 1.7 trillion.

was just answering the question.

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

#275

Post by tmountain » Sat, Jun 06, 2026, 3:28 PM UTC

embedding-shape wrote: post #203

tmountain wrote: post #200

A huge chunk of SoaceX value in their filing is attributed to their AI technology (aka Grok). I believe it’s 90% or more… Now, it seems they’re leasing the infrastructure required for Grok to scale to Anthropic and Google. I wonder how that math works…

But what is xAI? I thought that was the company that had the compute + Grok, the AI company? Since when does SpaceX (which I thought was a space company?) own AI-compute hardware and/or can do model hosting? Are all of Musks companies just one big thing now where the names no longer matter, or how is it supposed to work? Edit: seems I'm just a bit behind: "xAI — now part of SpaceX ", seems really strange for a space…

Context here (Patrick Boyle):

https://youtu.be/IHD8BDFYyGI?is=dnpBeOoxH7LUJknm

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

#276

Post by snypher » Sat, Jun 06, 2026, 3:31 PM UTC

dyauspitr wrote: post #239

fooqux wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds exactly like the kind of thing that will be outlawed in thirty years after tracing back the root cause of the second great depression.

Outlaw what? Prevent companies from selling goods and services to each other?

I think SpaceX should be valued on rockets n space n stuff, not how many magical calculator dollars they bring in.

Surely Google can "make compute go" for $1b/month. Nice way to avoid holding the bag, maybe?

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

#277

Post by echoangle » Sat, Jun 06, 2026, 3:35 PM UTC

tristanj wrote: post #205

This is a masterful piece of financial engineering by Google and SpaceX. Google purchased 10% of SpaceX over a decade ago. After dilution they probably own around 5%. SpaceX is valued at a whopping 94x revenue. This deal increases SpaceX's revenue by $11 billion per year. If SpaceX maintains this revenue multiplier, then this single deal boosts SpaceX's valuation by 94 x 11 billion = $1 trillion dollars. Google owns…

Isn’t the revenue modifier a result and not the cause?

Would you really expect a company to increase proportionally in value when they increase their revenue?

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

#278

Post by mgraczyk » Sat, Jun 06, 2026, 3:40 PM UTC

tristanj wrote: post #205

This is a masterful piece of financial engineering by Google and SpaceX. Google purchased 10% of SpaceX over a decade ago. After dilution they probably own around 5%. SpaceX is valued at a whopping 94x revenue. This deal increases SpaceX's revenue by $11 billion per year. If SpaceX maintains this revenue multiplier, then this single deal boosts SpaceX's valuation by 94 x 11 billion = $1 trillion dollars. Google owns…

For your math to make sense, Google would have to sell its stake this year

There may be more to it than buying compute but what you're saying does not make sense for Google. More likely Google wants a good relationship with SpaceX and possibly to buoy the stock, but it's a bad NPV trade

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

#279

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jun 06, 2026, 3:41 PM UTC

noir_lord wrote: post #272

tristanj wrote: post #205

This is a masterful piece of financial engineering by Google and SpaceX. Google purchased 10% of SpaceX over a decade ago. After dilution they probably own around 5%. SpaceX is valued at a whopping 94x revenue. This deal increases SpaceX's revenue by $11 billion per year. If SpaceX maintains this revenue multiplier, then this single deal boosts SpaceX's valuation by 94 x 11 billion = $1 trillion dollars. Google owns…

> Truly a brilliant deal for everyone involved. Except for people who have pensions/investments in whole market class investments who become exposed to an over valued company with a propped up value.

[deleted]

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

#280

Post by IAmGraydon » Sat, Jun 06, 2026, 3:42 PM UTC

tristanj wrote: post #205

This is a masterful piece of financial engineering by Google and SpaceX. Google purchased 10% of SpaceX over a decade ago. After dilution they probably own around 5%. SpaceX is valued at a whopping 94x revenue. This deal increases SpaceX's revenue by $11 billion per year. If SpaceX maintains this revenue multiplier, then this single deal boosts SpaceX's valuation by 94 x 11 billion = $1 trillion dollars. Google owns…

So masterful that a random guy on HN can see right through it.

Let’s just call it what it is. It’s just basic fraud. They created a very temporary revenue injection right around the time of the IPO to defraud investors as much as they possibly can. Some businesses do this kind of thing just before they die because…why not?