SpaceX shares climbed in early trading Monday after the company detailed plans over the holiday weekend for a new orbital data center constellation dubbed Starmind, adding to progress on its existing Starlink broadband business.
The stock advanced 2.5% to $165.99, outpacing gains in the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average, which rose 0.5% and 0.3%, respectively.
The rally followed a video posted on SpaceX’s website outlining Starmind, an orbital data-center constellation. SpaceX, which merged with xAI in February, already leases AI computing capacity on Earth to Google and Anthropic in deals worth billions annually. Rather than continuing to expand terrestrial capacity—which faces mounting pressure from rising power costs, water consumption, and local political resistance—the company intends to place AI computing hardware in orbit, drawing on solar power and dispersing the heat generated by the chips into space.
The orbital AI deployments are slated to begin in 2028. New footage released by the company shows design models for the satellites, which executives described as considerably simpler in construction than the Starlink satellites currently in service. SpaceX operates roughly 10,000 Starlink satellites, serving more than 10 million customers in a business that generates billions in annual revenue with profit margins exceeding 60%.
The company recently disclosed it had deorbited 260 Starlink satellites over the past six months, a routine part of its operations as older units are retired and replaced by newer launches. The satellites are engineered to disintegrate completely upon re-entry, burning up at speeds exceeding 15,000 miles per hour and temperatures near 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, leaving no debris that reaches the Earth’s surface.
The scale of the deorbiting figure underscores SpaceX’s commanding position in space-based broadband. The number of satellites it removed from service over six months approaches Amazon’s total currently in orbit, which has deployed more than 300 satellites in pursuit of a rival broadband offering and is expected to launch commercial service later this year.
Competition in both broadband and orbital computing is expected to intensify. SpaceX’s principal advantage remains its launch infrastructure: the company conducts more than half of all global orbital launches, and its fully reusable Starship vehicle, still in testing, could further reduce launch costs.
