Junior Steven Rao wasn’t thinking about outer space when he joined the Computer Enhanced Engineering Club — he was thinking about faster processors and more efficient code. But in early February, when Elon Musk announced plans to merge SpaceX with artificial intelligence startup xAI and build massive data centers in orbit, Rao found himself reimagining not just the future of AI, but his own.

For Rao the planned merger helped him broaden his perspective on technology and his own future career.

“I have been focusing purely on terrestrial-based computing systems and AI clusters, and I’ve been exploring relevant knowledge designed to refine and orchestrate software (and) hardware in power-constrained data centers,” Rao said. “But with the potential rise of space-based data centers with unlimited power and scale, I realized that I could potentially also be an aerospace engineer as well.“

Elon Musk announced a plan in early February to merge aerospace and artificial intelligence company SpaceX with xAI, a comparatively small startup that created and maintains an AI chatbot on the SpaceX website. At an estimated value of $1.25 trillion, the merger would be the largest in history. 

According to the SpaceX website, a big reason for the merger is a lack of resources like electricity and water for cooling on Earth.

Musk said the merger was essential to implement his plans to launch one million satellites into orbit, creating a giant space data center.

“SpaceX has acquired 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.”

“Current advances in AI are dependent on large terrestrial data centers, which require immense amounts of power and cooling,” Musk said on SpaceX website.  “Global electricity demand for AI simply cannot be met with terrestrial solutions, even in the near term, without imposing hardship on communities and the environment. The only logical solution therefore is to transport these resource-intensive efforts to a location with vast power and space.”

As president of the Computer Enhanced Engineering Club, junior Steven Rao said he is optimistic about this merger.

“The electrical energy in low-Earth orbit is virtually unlimited if we are able to harness solar power on a large scale,” Rao said. “A solar panel (in space) is able to generate five to eight times more energy per year than on Earth because it faces the sun 24/7 and suffers no atmospheric loss. ”

But Astrophysics teacher Joshua Bloom said there are limitations to Musk’s plan.

“Space-based systems may mitigate some issues associated with being ground-based, while introducing others,” Bloom said. “Among these are increased exposure to solar and cosmic radiation as well as impacts from micrometeoroids and other space debris. This can be mitigated, but they do add additional challenges.”

Bloom also said he worries about the project’s environmental impacts.

“The more things we put into orbit, the more that has to be monitored and managed to avoid catastrophic collisions,” Bloom said. “Unlike on Earth, where debris eventually falls to the ground, in-orbit debris remains in orbit and now creates a debris field that continues to spread.”

Rao also said there are limitations to what hardware in space can do.

“Data centers require high stability when running and are prone to hardware failures over time,” Rao said. “Putting them in space would significantly increase the cost of repairing these failures and could reduce the robustness of the clusters. Unless we can send technicians up there within hours or minutes of a failure, these data centers are not economically justifiable.”

However, Bloom said solutions exist.

“It is possible to build more redundant systems so if something fails there are back-ups, and it is possible to build in more options for issues to be addressed remotely so long as they do not require physical servicing of parts,” Bloom said. “So, that is also going to be a greater challenge for space-based systems. None of these are problems that a company like SpaceX hasn’t thought of or isn’t able to address, but they nonetheless create unique challenges.”

Another big reason for the merger is to provide money to xAl. Since SpaceX possesses more financial and human resources, it can support the substantial funding that xAI requires to compete with other companies. 

This makes Rao optimistic about increased AI development as a result of the merger.

“SpaceX can also mutually benefit from the merger by accepting hardware and software engineers with cutting-edge AI knowledge from xAI to accelerate the engineering of their rockets and spacecrafts,” Rao said. “Overall, I would say this could and would accelerate the development of AI tech, and it is surely mutually beneficial.”

Economics teacher Eric Bloom, though, said it is unclear whether this merger will affect the stock market.

“Both SpaceX and xAI are not publicly traded, so I’m not sure if it will do much,” Eric Bloom said. “But since Musk just created $250 billion of SpaceX stock to buy xAI, it may have an impact if and when Musk tries to bring SpaceX to the public market.”

But if the technology is successful, Joshua Bloom said it could have a great impact on human energy production.

“While I’m not an expert on this technology, it does strike me as quite the leap in power generation,” Joshua Bloom said. “I wouldn’t say it is unachievable, but it is definitely aspirational.”

Still, Eric Bloom said he is personally concerned about the merger.

“As a citizen, I am concerned when a major government contractor buys out a high risk company and folds it under cost structure,” Eric Bloom said. “Now, every time we use a SpaceX rocket, we are subsiding Musk’s Grok AI.” 

Rao said he is excited about the future of this technology.

“The idea of building an AI supercomputer in space that’s 10 or 50 times the scale of what we currently have on Earth is something I consider worthy of being optimistic about, despite the numerous technical and economic drawbacks.”