Musk: Earth's Data Centers Will Be 'Peanuts' Next to SpaceX Orbital Compute

Elon Musk is telling the SpaceX skeptics they have the math wrong. Replying on X on Sunday to a post citing analyst Kyle Reidhead, who estimates SpaceX must spend roughly $470 billion over the next five quarters to reach its goal of 13 gigawatts or more of compute by the end of 2027, Musk said the company's capital expenditure efficiency is severely underestimated, Teslarati reports. On the earnings call, CFO Bret Johnsen said new compute pays for itself in under a year at today's pricing; Musk said that could shrink to six months next year. SpaceX ended the quarter with 1.7 GW of compute and recently closed a $40 billion debt raise to buy GPUs. The real prize is orbit: "Terrestrial compute will be peanuts compared to orbital compute," Musk wrote, expecting orbital deployment to pass terrestrial around the end of 2028.