S8 Ep203: PREVIEW: Rick Fisher outlines Elon Musk's plan to launch AI data centers into low Earth orbit using heavy Starlink Version 3 satellites. This strategy aims to secure data off-planet and compete directly with China's own space-based infrastructure, moving

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 17 December 2025

⏱️ 2 minutes

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Summary

PREVIEW: Rick Fisher outlines Elon Musk's plan to launch AI data centers into low Earth orbit using heavy Starlink Version 3 satellites. This strategy aims to secure data off-planet and compete directly with China's own space-based infrastructure, moving the "AI data center race" beyond terrestrial locations like Northern Virginia.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is John Batchel, colleague Rick Fisher, describing Elon Musk's plans for data centers in space in competition with the People's Republic of China's data centers in space.
0:12.6	Low Earth orbit.
0:14.1	In order to move them off the planet, make them more secure, perhaps, and build them larger and larger.
0:20.8	SpaceX is on its way.
0:22.6	China's in the league.
0:24.3	Rick Fisher describes all of it tonight.
0:26.1	Here's Rick Fisher on introducing Musk's plan for data centers in space.
0:30.5	No longer Northern Virginia.
0:32.5	Lower Earth orbit.
0:33.4	Here's more.
0:36.1	By proliferating platforms, Gordon.
0:40.3	One of the current future major competitors in the AI data center race is our own Elon Musk,
0:50.6	who plans to use the next version of his Starlink mega satellite constellation
0:59.3	platform, the version 3, which weighs about one-third the weight of his dragon-manned spaceship.
1:08.8	I mean, he's already lofted about 10,000 Starlink satellites to
1:14.3	populate his internet in space, but published plans indicate he could go up to 42,000. So he has
1:23.9	quite a bit of leeway to populate an extended thousands of satellites, AI data center in space.
1:37.4	At least he can help lead that race very effectively.

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