SoftBank's Masayoshi Son questions the value of Musk's Orbital Data Center; analysts say all predictions are driven by vested interests.

According to Mars Finance, on June 28th, SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son publicly questioned Elon Musk's proposed orbital data center concept at a recent shareholders' meeting. Son pointed out that building data centers in space is not only costly and time-consuming, but also that "in the AI race, the next few years are far more important than things ten years from now." This statement sparked widespread discussion in the tech world. TechCrunch analysts pointed out the irony: Son himself is an investor known for his "reckless bets"—from WeWork to SoftBank's Vision Fund, a series of high-stakes gambles. However, his high-profile criticism still has significant value, as many venture capitalists and entrepreneurs have already been swept up in the orbital data center concept. Regarding Musk's true motives, analysts stated that the orbital data center concept aligns perfectly with SpaceX's commercial interests—building a satellite constellation means continuous launch demand, which will bring stable orders to SpaceX's rocket launch business. SpaceX currently holds an 80% to 90% global launch market share, but a significant portion of this relies on launches of its own Starlink satellites. Excluding this factor, its actual share might only be between 20% and 40%. SpaceX is also actively expanding its computing power leasing business, having signed cooperation agreements with Google, Anthropic, and others, and completing its first new computing power leasing deal since its IPO. More noteworthy is that OpenAI founder Altman also holds reservations about orbital data centers—and his feud with Musk is long-standing. Analysts conclude that in this discussion about the future of AI, all voices have significant vested interests; "there are no truly objective and neutral observers," and every prediction is driven by vested interests.