xAI Buys $2.8 Billion in Gas Turbines as SpaceX Pushes Solar Power From Orbit

5 articles · Updated · TechCrunch · May 23

$2.8 billion in planned turbine purchases would deepen xAI’s reliance on natural gas to run AI data centers, even as Musk’s companies were built around electrification and solar.
SpaceX’s new filing frames space-based solar as the long-term answer, arguing orbital arrays can generate more than five times the energy of terrestrial panels through constant sunlight.
$697 million spent by xAI on Tesla Megapacks and $131 million by SpaceX on 1,279 Cybertrucks show Musk still directs spending across his companies, but not toward significant Tesla solar deployments.
Terawatt-scale annual AI compute growth cited in the filing underpins the strategy, with SpaceX arguing Earth-based power constraints could be worse than outside estimates suggest.
Orbital data centers still face steep hurdles — launch costs, higher satellite power economics, radiation-hardened chips and limits on distributing AI training — leaving gas-fired ground sites as the near-term bridge.

Facing extreme heat and radiation, can AI data centers truly survive and thrive in the vacuum of space?

As AI's energy problem moves into orbit, who will govern the future of our night sky and space?

Is Musk's fossil fuel use a bridge to space solar or a detour from viable green energy on Earth?