SpaceX merged with xAI early this year in a deal valuing the combined company at roughly $1.25 trillion, aiming to build orbital AI data centers. The project, named Starmind, involves a satellite called AI1 that functions as an orbiting server rack delivering around 150 kilowatts of peak computing power. The satellite spans about 70 meters tip to tip and is equipped with chips running xAI's Grok models. SpaceX's roadmap calls for two prototype AI1 satellites to launch in early 2027, with production ramping toward roughly 1 gigawatt of orbital compute per year by late 2027, and commercial operation potentially beginning in 2028. SpaceX has asked regulators for permission to eventually field a constellation of up to 1 million such satellites, ferried by its reusable Starship rocket, with a single mission deploying 30 to 50 satellites at a time. The logic is that space solves terrestrial AI data center problems of power and heat, as solar panels catch sunlight nearly around the clock and the cold vacuum allows heat radiation without water and electricity. However, dissipating heat in a vacuum is genuinely hard, radiation degrades electronics, and no technician can fix a broken server 300 miles up. xAI was burning billions of dollars and needed SpaceX's deep pockets, which was as much a driver of the merger as any orbital vision.