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Musk’s AI Power Shift
Coverage from Story musk vows put data centers space run solar 129860857, TechCrunch, and others
AI data centers are intensifying pressure for reliable electricity, prompting a mix of natural-gas generation, grid-scale batteries, terrestrial solar, and proposed space-based systems.
xAI’s facilities illustrate the tension: they use Tesla Megapacks for power buffering while relying heavily on gas turbines, whereas Ambrosia Energy is developing solar-and-battery plants designed to provide continuous power. SpaceX and Elon Musk are also promoting orbital data centers powered by space-based solar, though major technical, financial, environmental, and regulatory uncertainties remain.
The story broadens from xAI’s power choices to a wider framing of AI electricity demand as an increasingly important constraint on U.S. growth. It also adds a sharper contrast between terrestrial solar as a practical option and Musk’s orbital data-center vision as the more prominent, but still highly uncertain, alternative.
The story now places sharper emphasis on xAI’s operational power mix, adding that its Megapack use has grown to nearly $1 billion and that emissions/permitting scrutiny is intensifying. It also newly identifies legal pressure from NAACP and Earthjustice, while the broader framing shifts toward an explicit power-supply bottleneck for AI.