SpaceX, a major player in the AI industry, is expected to see its near-term value come from Earth-based infrastructure, rather than its orbital AI plans. The company has started monetizing its compute capabilities, striking deals with enterprise customers like Anthropic for its Colossus supercomputer clusters.

Terrestrial Compute Begins to Pay Off

These deals are expected to generate over $28 billion in annual revenue, far exceeding SpaceX’s 2025 AI revenue of about $3.2 billion. The company invested nearly $18 billion in AI infrastructure and development in 2025, including about $12.7 billion in AI-related capital expenditure and $5.1 billion in AI research and development.

SpaceX’s Colossus and Colossus II provide roughly one gigawatt of AI compute capacity, making the company one of the world’s largest AI compute operators. Analysts expect this footprint to expand several-fold over the next few years.

Orbital AI Remains a Long-Term Bet

Most brokerages view orbital AI as a longer-term opportunity, with near-term financial forecasts focused on terrestrial AI infrastructure. The introduction of Starship rockets, lower launch costs, and technological advances are needed for orbital AI to become viable.

Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.