Elon Musk on SpaceX Starship
From JUST RECORDED: Elon Musk Interviewed by JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon · · Brighter with Herbert
“The fundamental breakthrough of Starship is that it will be the first orbital rocket that is fully reusable. So this might sound like an obvious thing, but because in every other mode of transport, whether that's aircraft, vehic, you know, cars, bicycles, horses, you name it, ships, these are all we take it for granted that there are reusable. An aircraft journey would be very expensive if you had to throw the plane away every time. And that's how rockets have been in the past.”
On , Elon Musk, Co-Founder, Technoking of Tesla, Chief Executive Officer & Director at Tesla, spoke about SpaceX Starship during JUST RECORDED: Elon Musk Interviewed by JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon on Brighter with Herbert.
About Elon Musk
Elon Musk has been discussing plans to scale AI computing into space, stating that SpaceX aims to reach an annualized rate of one gigawatt of space-based AI compute by the end of 2027 and scale that by an order of magnitude per year thereafter. He described a concept for AI satellites that are simpler than Starlink satellites, consisting primarily of solar cells, radiators, and laser links. Musk said that to reach higher power levels, a "terafab" chip factory of around 100 million square feet would be needed, and that further scaling to a terawatt could require a mass driver on the Moon to launch AI satellites into deep space using an electromagnetic gun. He noted that SpaceX currently delivers an estimated 85–90% of Earth's mass to orbit and aims to increase that from roughly 2,500 tons per year to millions of tons per year within about three years using Starship, which he described as the first fully and rapidly reusable orbital rocket. At Tesla's Q1 2026 earnings call, Musk said the company would substantially increase capital expenditures to support future growth, including the deployment of over 100,000 next-generation Starlink satellites. He stated that supervised full self-driving (FSD) had been approved in the Netherlands and was expected to go to EU review in May, but noted that the timeline for unsupervised self-driving or robotaxi service in Europe would depend on regulators. Musk also commented on the end of production for the Model S and Model X, calling the Model S a vehicle that changed perceptions of electric cars. In other appearances, he discussed the importance of having children, described AI as a potential existential risk, and said he expects digital superintelligence to exceed human biological compute around 2029 or 2030.