Featured in Powering AI – 03-2026

Solar key to space-based AI

Elon Musk, the CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX, raised some eyebrows at this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, when he predicted “that the lowest cost place to put AI will be space and that will be true within two to three years, three at the latest.” pv magazine reported on Musk’s vision on our global website www.pv-magazine.com on Jan. 26, 2026, and exactly one week later SpaceX announced that it was acquiring xAI “to form the most ambitious, vertically integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth, with AI, rockets, space-based internet, direct-to-mobile device communications, and the world’s foremost real-time information and free speech platform.”
Image: Steve Jurvetson, Flickr

From the magazine Solar PV plays a central role in the growing buzz around building data centers in space. The Feb. 2 statement from SpaceX and its founder Elon Musk states that “current advances in AI are dependent on large terrestrial data centers, which require immense amounts of power and cooling. Global electricity demand for …

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