SoftBank's Masayoshi Son questions the value of Elon Musk's orbital data center, with analysts stating that all parties' predictions are driven by vested interests.

SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son recently publicly challenged Elon Musk’s push for orbital data center concepts at a general shareholder meeting, arguing that building data centers in space is not only extremely costly and time-consuming, but also that "in the AI race, the next few years matter far more than what happens a decade from now." This remark has sparked widespread discussion across the tech industry. TechCrunch analysts note the irony that Son himself is an investor renowned for "crazy bets"—a pattern seen in high-stakes gambles ranging from WeWork to SoftBank’s Vision Fund. Still, his high-profile skeptical stance carries meaningful weight, given that a large number of venture capital firms and entrepreneurs have already been swept up in the orbital data center concept. As for Musk’s true motives, analysts bluntly point out that the orbital data center concept aligns closely with SpaceX’s commercial interests: building a satellite constellation translates to sustained launch demand, which will bring stable orders for SpaceX’s rocket launch operations. SpaceX currently holds an 80% to 90% share of the global launch market, but a significant portion of this is driven by launches of its own Starlink satellites. Excluding that segment, its actual market share may only stand at 20% to 40%. SpaceX is also actively expanding its computing power leasing business, having signed cooperation deals with firms including Google and Anthropic, and closed its first new computing power leasing transaction after its IPO. Most notably, OpenAI founder Sam Altman also holds reservations about the orbital data center concept—and his long-standing feud with Musk is well-documented. Analysts conclude that in this discussion about the future of AI, all parties speaking out have significant skin in the game: "there are no truly neutral, objective observers," and every prediction comes with an asterisk driven by vested interests.