Elon Musk expects SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service to grow dramatically as artificial intelligence and robotics spread, according to a Benzinga report surfaced via Google News.
The report frames Musk's comments around the idea that the coming wave of AI systems and robots will drive far more demand for connectivity than today's consumer internet usage does — with Musk quoted as saying "it's not out of the" (the source headline is truncated at that point, so the full phrasing isn't available here).
Starlink is SpaceX's constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites, which beams broadband to customers on the ground, including in places where cables and cell towers don't reach. It has become the commercial engine that helps fund SpaceX's more speculative ambitions.
The logic behind Musk's optimism is straightforward even if the specifics here are thin: AI models and autonomous machines need to talk to data centers constantly, and robots deployed in fields, mines, ports, and remote infrastructure sites can't rely on fiber that was never laid. A satellite network that covers the entire planet is one answer to that gap.
A caution worth stating plainly: this brief rests on a single aggregated headline, and no revenue figures, subscriber counts, timelines, or technical targets appear in the source material. Musk has a long record of ambitious public projections, and none of the specific growth claims here can be independently checked against numbers in this reporting.
Why it matters: if AI and robotics really do become the dominant consumers of bandwidth, whoever owns global connectivity infrastructure captures a foundational layer of that economy — and Starlink currently has a substantial head start.