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

Mars Finance News: On June 28, Masayoshi Son, the founder and CEO of SoftBank, recently publicly questioned Elon Musk’s orbital data center concept at a shareholders’ meeting. Son noted that building data centers in space is not only costly and time-consuming, but that “in the AI race, the next few years are far more important than what happens after 10 years.” His remarks sparked extensive discussion in the tech industry.

TechCrunch analysts pointed out the irony: Son himself is an investor known for “crazy bets”—from WeWork to a series of high-stakes wagers across SoftBank’s Vision Fund, they all reflect that style. However, the significance of his highly visible skepticism remains important, because previously, large numbers of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs had already been swept up by the orbital data center concept.

As for Musk’s true motives, analysts said outright that the orbital data center concept is highly aligned with SpaceX’s commercial interests. Building a satellite constellation means ongoing launch demand, which will bring stable orders to SpaceX’s rocket launch business. SpaceX currently holds a global share of 80% to 90% in the launch market, but a substantial portion of that relies on launches of its own Starlink satellites. If that factor is removed, the actual share could be only 20% to 40%.

SpaceX is also actively expanding its compute power leasing business. It has already signed cooperation agreements with companies including Google and Anthropic, and after its IPO it reached its first new compute power leasing transaction.

Even more noteworthy, OpenAI founder Sam Altman also takes a reserved view of orbital data centers—and his long-standing feud with Musk goes back a long way. Analysts concluded that in this discussion about the future of AI, all the people speaking have major interests at stake. “There is no truly objective and neutral observer,” and behind every prediction lies an asterisk driven by self-interest.