ELON: TO SCALE CIVILIZATION, WE’LL HAVE TO MOVE AI TO DEEP SPACE

“I see a path to Starship cost-per-ton-to-orbit being lower than air flight.

That opens up a very wide range of possibilities.

The most obvious one I think is actually solar-powered AI satellites.

To move the AI to orbit and essentially deep space over time, because you can actually access over a billion times more energy from the sun in deep space than you can on Earth.

To make any progress on a Kardashev 2 scale, which is using some non-trivial amount of energy from the sun, you kind of have to do space solar power.

You could only beam a tiny amount of that back to Earth or you would melt Earth.

Earth actually receives a very, very tiny amount of the sun's energy.

Earth is a tiny dust mote.

Tto scale with the sun, we look like a little crumb.

So, to scale civilization, to be at all relevant on a Kardashev 2 scale, like to even use a millionth of a percent of the Sun's energy, you really have to have your solar power in deep space.”

Source: Tesla Shareholder Meeting, November 6, 2025