Elon Musk has spoken out about the rapid growth of AI on a recent podcast suggesting that Earth may soon be unable to support it.
Elon Musk claims in a few months, Ai will be expanding in space(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Elon Musk has issued a stark new prediction that humanity may be running out of time to scale artificial intelligence on Earth, claiming the planet could soon become technologically obsolete unless AI infrastructure is moved into space. Speaking on a recent podcast, the billionaire entrepreneur argued that the rapid acceleration of AI development is already pushing Earth’s power and computing systems to their limits.
According to Musk, the move is both inevitable and imminent, with space-based AI infrastructure becoming a necessity rather than an option. He added that an off-planet solution is no longer a distant idea, but a near future reality.
“My prediction is that by far the cheapest place to put AI will be space in 36 months or less, maybe 30 months,” he said. “Less than 36 months, mark my words.”
Musk, who owns the satellite internet connection Starlink, explained that energy is the fundamental bottleneck for scaling artificial intelligence. While many AI developers tend to think purely in “software terms,” he cautioned that the real limitation lies in the hardware – and more specifically, in the generation and availably of electricity.
“All of the United States currently uses only about half a terawatt of power on average,” Musk said. “Imagine trying to build enough power plants to double that. People don’t realise how hard that actually is.”
In contrast, Musk pointed out that space provides near limitless energy. He explained that solar panels in orbit can produce roughly five times the power of panels on Earth, thanks to uninterrupted sunlight and the absence of atmospheric interference.
The billionaire also claimed that when battery storage is removed from the equation, the economics become extremely overwhelming.
“Solar cells are already very cheap, around 25 to 30 cents a watt in China,” Musk said. “Put them in space and it’s effectively ten times cheaper because you don’t need batteries.
“Once launch costs drop, space becomes the most scalable place to generate AI, and it’s not even close.”
Musk framed the challenge in stark almost existential terms, warning that Earth’s limited capacity to generate power could leave humanity technologically stranded as AI continues to expand at an unprecedented pace, the Express reports.
“You start thinking in terms of what percentage of the sun’s power you’re harnessing,” he explained. “Then you realise you have to go to space. You can’t scale very much on Earth.”
He went on further with a dramatic claim, suggesting that within just a few years the amount of AI computing power deployed in orbit each year will surpass the total currently operating on the planet.
“We will be launching and operating more AI in space every year than the cumulative total on Earth,” he said.
