SpaceX Applies for 1 Million Satellites for Artificial Intelligence

Plan for a Massive Data Center in Orbit

SpaceX and its CEO Elon Musk have proposed a radical project to meet the increasing computational power needs of artificial intelligence systems. In its official application to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the company stated its intention to build a solar-powered 'orbital data center' and deploy 1 million satellites for this purpose.

100 Times the Current Fleet

According to the plan detailed in the application, these satellites will be positioned in closely spaced orbital layers. The requested number of satellites is approximately 100 times the number of Starlink satellites the company currently has in orbit. SpaceX recently reached the milestone of launching its 11,000th Starlink satellite. According to independent tracking data, as of January 2026, there are over 9,600 active Starlink satellites in orbit.

According to documents submitted by SpaceX to the FCC, orbital data centers are proposed as the most efficient way to meet the computational power demand required for AI, due to their low operational and maintenance costs and the use of continuous solar energy.

Approval Process and Potential Revisions

However, industry observers expect the FCC to significantly reduce this astronomically requested number. The agency has a history of revising similar applications. Earlier this month, the FCC approved SpaceX's request to deploy an additional 7,500 Starlink satellites. This number is considerably lower than the approximately 30,000 satellites the company initially requested in 2020. It is noted that a similar revision could be possible for the new application.

This move is interpreted as a strong signal of the company's intention to expand its orbital infrastructure beyond communications and enter the global cloud computing and AI market. News regarding SpaceX's expanded satellite constellation plans on this topic had previously appeared in the media.