Musk-led SpaceX to launch first Nvidia-powered AI satellite, eyes orbital data centre debut in 2027

SpaceX founder and billionaire Elon Musk said on Monday (local time) that the company plans to begin launching its first AI satellites equipped with Nvidia chips in the fourth quarter of next year, with the fleet expected to reach “significant scale” by 2028.

SpaceX to use Nvidia chips in AI satellites: What we know

He made the announcement while resharing a post by Nvidia on X, in which the chipmaker highlighted SpaceX's plans to deploy its artificial intelligence (AI) technology in space. Musk wrote, "SpaceX, in partnership with Nvidia, has designed a space-optimized Vera Rubin NVL72 system for launch to orbit in Q4 next year, with significant scale in 2028."

Earlier on Monday, Nvidia's X account said SpaceX would use Vera to speed up orchestration, code execution and data processing for its next generation of agentic AI, helping keep GPUs running efficiently and AI agents operating quickly.

In a release, the chipmaker said, "SpaceXAI's planned first-generation Starmind AI satellite will be based on the optimized NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 rack-scale system, extending the same accelerated computing architecture powering next-generation AI factories on Earth into space."

What is Nvidia's Vera Rubin?

Nvidia's Vera Rubin NVL72 is a rack-scale AI supercomputer that combines 72 Rubin GPUs, 36 Vera CPUs, ConnectX-9 SuperNICs, and BlueField-4 DPUs in a single integrated system. According to reports, it is the first CPU specifically designed for AI agents and is intended to accelerate CPU-intensive tasks involved in model inference, including tool use, code execution, data processing, orchestration, and simulation.

The CPU also features 88 Nvidia-designed Olympus cores, Spatial Multithreading technology and high-bandwidth LPDDR5X memory, providing up to 1.2TB per second of memory bandwidth. The company noted that Vera can finish tasks up to 1.8 times faster than x86 CPUs across workloads, including agentic AI, reinforcement learning and data processing.

SpaceX to rely solely on Nvidia's tech for AI infrastructure: Musk

The announcement follows comments by Musk earlier this month that SpaceX would rely solely on Nvidia technology for the AI infrastructure it plans to deploy in space. Musk had initially considered multiple chip-based designs but ultimately concluded that Nvidia's systems were the most suitable for the project.

Musk-led SpaceX, which launched its IPO in June, has highlighted plans for pioneering space-based data centres, a satellite network designed to perform computing in orbit as a cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternative to data centres on Earth, Bloomberg reported.

The company had earlier indicated that its orbital data centres could be launched as soon as 2028. However, following the first quarter's earnings report, Musk reportedly brought the timeline forward, stating that they could be launched as soon as "next year."

Additionally, the company has now filed for approval with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch a network of roughly one million satellites to conduct complex computing for AI.

Nvidia's partnership with SpaceX comes as the chipmaker's technology is set to power the company's planned AI satellites, while SpaceX continues to develop its plans for computing in orbit.

(with agency inputs)