National Defense

SpaceX Reportedly May Join Artificial Intelligence Arms Race

Screen Capture/ABC News

SpaceX may join the Pentagon’s efforts in the artificial intelligence arms race to advance computing power supporting warfighting capabilities.

Elon Musk’s aerospace company, SpaceX, is in talks with the Department of War to provide access to its artificial intelligence (AI) data centers to support the Pentagon, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Friday, citing unnamed individuals familiar with the talks. It remains unclear, however, if the deal will make it to fruition.

“The Department of War is pushing to expand our AI Arsenal with secure compute at the operational edge to leverage AI for improved tactical decision making, particularly in denied, degraded, intermittent, and limited connectivity environments,” a Department of War official told the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF).

SpaceX would not be selling AI data centers to the Pentagon outright. Rather, the aerospace company would merely be lending its computing power to the Department of War for a limited time, similar to a lease, the outlet reported.

The leased computing power could ultimately cost the Department billions of dollars, the WSJ reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

This would not be the first time SpaceX rented out its computing power to outside entities. Its AI data centers are being used by Google for $920 million a month from October 2026 to June 2029, the WSJ reported June 5. The deal could be worth up to $30.4 billion over the 33 months if the contract is completed in its entirety.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.

The renting of computing power from data centers is generally outside of SpaceX’s primary focus: satellite launches utilizing reusable rockets, such as the Falcon 9.

Falcon 9 lifts off from pad 39A in Florida! pic.twitter.com/ozYLYUxCss

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 27, 2024

SpaceX’s proposal to provide computing power to the War Department is not the only dealings the aerospace company has had with the Pentagon in recent months.

The acting U.S. Space Force’s portfolio acquisition executive for space-based sensing and targeting awarded a contract for $4.16 billion to SpaceX for the Space-Based Airborne Moving Target Indicator program on May 29, according to a press release. This program could be a key part of President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome proposal, as it aims to “enhance the Space Force’s capabilities to the Joint Force through the establishment of a persistent, global capability to sense and track airborne targets from space.”

The proposed deal with the Pentagon to rent out computing power is only the beginning of SpaceX’s dive into the data center marketplace. SpaceX is reportedly seeking to challenge competitors in the industry, such as Coreweave, another company which rents out computing power to third parties, the WSJ reported, citing people familiar with SpaceX.

These business dealings follow SpaceX’s recent initial public offering (IPO), which could facilitate Elon Musk’s becoming the world’s first trillionaire.

“We believe we have identified the largest actionable total addressable market (TAM) in human history. We estimate that our quantifiable TAM is 28.5 trillion,” SpaceX’s filing states.