The Real, Sci-Fi Reason Elon Musk Merged His Companies

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The Real, Sci-Fi Reason Elon Musk Merged His Companies

Elon Musk is officially merging two of his companies, xAI and SpaceX. The former makes generative AI models, and the latter flies things into space.

Lots of things—fully 95% of the objects that America sends to space are put there by SpaceX.

At first, it seems like the two companies have nothing to do with each other. But as I explain in my most recent FastCompany article, there’s a real reason to merge the companies: data centers in space.

Sound outlandish? Feel like a sci-fi dream?

Perhaps it is. But Elon Musk is taking the idea of launching AI data centers into space extremely seriously. And it’s actually gaining mainstream interest, too.

Here’s a look at why the merger of these two companies could mean flying data centers orbiting the earth (yes, really), and sooner than you might expect.