Elon Musk has once again made headlines with a bold new idea: rapidly deploying a terawatt of computing power—the same amount of electricity currently generated by the entire United States.
In a recent post on X (formerly Twitter), Musk described what he believes is the fastest way to reach that massive level of computing capacity. His solution? Ten SpaceX Starships.
While he didn’t go into technical details, Musk seems to be referencing the concept of space-based solar power. The idea involves launching solar power stations into orbit, where they would collect sunlight more efficiently than on Earth and beam the energy back as microwaves. On the ground, specially designed receiving stations would convert those signals into usable electricity and feed it into the grid.
This level of energy is seen as essential to fuel the ever-growing demands of artificial intelligence and advanced computing systems.
Musk’s ambitious vision has sparked a wave of responses online. Some users suggested more grounded ideas, like building giant solar farms in desert regions—a more traditional but still large-scale solution to increasing energy needs.
Whether Musk follows through with space-based power or not, one thing is clear: the race to meet future computing demands is just getting started—and SpaceX might play a bigger role than we ever imagined.