NEW YORK: SpaceX executives say the company is aiming to launch initial demonstrations of space-based artificial intelligence computing infrastructure by late 2027, ahead of the “as early as 2028” timeline for deployment disclosed in its IPO filing, according to two people who attended investor presentations held ahead of the offering.
The orbital-compute effort is central to SpaceX’s long-term growth pitch to investors. The company claims in its IPO documents that it is “the only company with a commercially viable path to building orbital AI compute at scale”.
SpaceX has requested permission from regulators to launch up to 1 million space-based data-centre satellites.
During two investor presentations ahead of the IPO, both featuring President Gwynne Shotwell and Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen, SpaceX executives outlined a roadmap to begin demonstrating orbital-compute capabilities in 2027, according to the two people familiar with the discussions. Both sources were at a Goldman Sachs meeting and one attended another meeting as well.
While the IPO filing said orbital data-centre deployments could begin as early as 2028, it did not distinguish between demonstration missions and commercial deployments.
Shotwell and Johnsen, who have been meeting with major investment banks to pitch a US$75 billion fundraise in the company’s IPO targeting a valuation of US$1.75 trillion, described the initial deployments as demonstrator systems intended to validate the technology before any broader commercial rollout, the sources said.
One of them interpreted the timeline in the IPO filing as providing management room for potential delays in Starship development or satellite manufacturing.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the event attended by several investors and portfolio managers.
SpaceX stock is scheduled to begin trading on the Nasdaq on Friday (Jun 12) under the ticker symbol SPCX, with the IPO price targeted at US$135 per share.
