--- title: "SpaceX pays Singulus $67 million for the first Starmind solar-cell line, its first priced orbital hardware" description: "The first priced order for Elon Musk's orbital data centers lands while $40 billion of SpaceX's nine-month capex still builds compute on the ground. Singulus shareholders take the single-customer risk, and Friday's Starship flight sets the timetable." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Robotics & Defense" published: 2026-11-11T02:16:20.736Z modified: 2026-11-11T02:16:20.736Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/spacex-pays-singulus-67-million-for-the-first-starmind-solar-cell-line-its-first-priced-orbital-hardware language: en keywords: "SpaceX, Starship, Orbital Data Centers, Solar Power, Satellites" --- # SpaceX pays Singulus $67 million for the first Starmind solar-cell line, its first priced orbital hardware > The first priced order for Elon Musk's orbital data centers lands while $40 billion of SpaceX's nine-month capex still builds compute on the ground. Singulus shareholders take the single-customer risk, and Friday's Starship flight sets the timetable. [SpaceX](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/spacex) has started paying cash for its orbital data centers. On Tuesday Singulus Technologies, the German solar-equipment maker, [announced a supply contract](https://www.singulus.com/2026/11/10/spacex-heterojunction-solar-cells-singulus/) for a turnkey line to manufacture high-efficiency heterojunction solar cells for Starmind, the constellation of satellites SpaceX wants running AI workloads in orbit. The first line is worth more than €60 million ($67 million), arrives in the first half of 2027, and more are planned [1], [2]. SpaceX funded Singulus significantly in March and again in October [2]. Starmind has lived in filings and predictions; on the public record, this is its first priced hardware. ## The satellite is a power plant first In orbit there is no grid and no cooling water: every satellite must make its own power and radiate its own heat. The first spacecraft, Starmind AI1, wraps a space-optimized [Nvidia](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/nvidia) rack in vast solar arrays and is rated for 175 kilowatts of average compute [3]. The manufacturing bottleneck is cells rather than chips, so SpaceX is buying the tooling: Singulus says its line will scale at the planned Gigasat plant in Bastrop, Texas toward more than 100 gigawatts of production equipment [2], [4]. That is the 100 gigawatts a year in [Musk](https://theinference.org/markets/people/elon-musk)'s orbital arithmetic, worth $1 trillion of annual revenue [5]. The FCC application covers up to one million satellites, first launches expected in late 2027 [1]. ## The money is still on the ground SpaceX [spent $48 billion on capital projects in the first nine months of 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/five-nines-larry-page-reportedly-211842513.html) [5]. The Super Intelligence segment, which holds the ground data centers, took $40 billion of it [5]. *Chart: **Capex is compounding toward the biggest quarter in SpaceX's history** SpaceX quarterly capital spending in 2026: 10.1, 18.4 and 19.6 billion dollars in Q1 to Q3, with Q4 guided at 35 to 40 billion.* *Quarterly capital expenditure, $ billions. Q1–Q3 2026 as reported in SEC filings; Q4 2026 is management guidance of $35–40B, shown as an estimate. Sources: SpaceX SEC filings; Yahoo Finance. [9][5]* No analyst estimate values orbit yet: consensus for fiscal 2028 is $335 billion, almost all of it from renting out ground compute, against the 2.2 gigawatts SpaceX was running at the end of October [5]. Musk has conceded that plentiful, cheap compute would cut SpaceX revenue [5]. Singulus shareholders, up 10% on the day, hold a one-customer story with no flight heritage, while SpaceX investors fund both builds at once [1]. ## Discount the calendar, not the direction SpaceX's [own S-1, filed in May 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/musk-says-nvidia-data-centers-192011451.html), told regulators the orbital program relies on "unproven technologies, or technologies that do not exist," with deployment "as early as 2028" [3], a year past the 2027 dates Musk gives in public [6]. [Sam Altman](https://theinference.org/markets/people/sam-altman)'s stated objections are launch cost and on-orbit maintenance [4]; only cadence answers either. Musk has promised [weekly Starship flights in the first half of 2027](https://theinference.org/article/spacex-asks-the-faa-for-76-starship-launches-a-year-and-spcx-trades-at-133-times-forward-earnings) [5]. Flight 15, targeted for November 13, will attempt the first catch of both stages, the reuse step any cadence depends on [7]. ## The catch is the first real test The arc is credible: the power and cooling case for orbit is physics, and resistance on the ground is now electoral, with [voters in ten states approving bans or moratoriums on new AI data centers last week](https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/us-voters-reject-ai-data-centers-elon-musk-finds-solace-in-orbital-alternative/ar-AA2gMieV) [8]. Tuesday's order is real money on that arc. The calendar is still a promise, and Friday's catch is its first test. ## Takeaway SpaceX is now paying cash for orbital hardware: the $67 million Singulus solar-cell line lands in the first half of 2027, and Friday's Starship double catch decides whether the orbital data center calendar holds. ## Sources 1. [StockTwits via Yahoo Finance, "SPCX Secures Singulus Deal To Scale Starmind Space Data Center Satellites," 10 November 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/spcx-secures-singulus-deal-scale-205809395.html) 2. [SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES AG, "SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES Announces Major Supply Contract with SpaceX for Advanced HJT Solar Cell Manufacturing Equipment," 10 November 2026](https://www.singulus.com/2026/11/10/spacex-heterojunction-solar-cells-singulus/) 3. [24/7 Wall St. via Yahoo Finance, "Musk Says Nvidia Data Centers Hit Orbit in 2027. SpaceX's Own IPO Filing Said 2028 at the Earliest," 26 August 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/musk-says-nvidia-data-centers-192011451.html) 4. [BGR, "SpaceX Just Revealed That Orbital Data Centers Will Be Here Sooner Than You Think," 30 September 2026](https://bgr.com/2274086/spacex-reveals-orbital-data-center-faster-expected/) 5. [Yahoo Finance, "'Five-Nines': Larry Page Reportedly Sees 99.999% of Compute in Orbit, and Musk Agrees," 10 November 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/five-nines-larry-page-reportedly-211842513.html) 6. [Interesting Engineering, "Elon Musk teases SpaceX's orbital supercomputers, says it will 'blow people's minds'," 6 November 2026](https://interestingengineering.com/ai-robotics/spacex-starmind-orbital-supercomputers) 7. [TESLARATI, "SpaceX will perform Starship double catch attempt with Flight 15," 8 November 2026](https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-perform-starship-double-catch-attempt-flight-15/) 8. [PCMag, "US Voters Reject AI Data Centers, Elon Musk Finds Solace in Orbital Alternative," 4 November 2026](https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/us-voters-reject-ai-data-centers-elon-musk-finds-solace-in-orbital-alternative/ar-AA2gMieV) 9. [SpaceX, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 11 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001181412) --- SpaceX pays Singulus $67 million for the first Starmind solar-cell line, its first priced orbital hardware — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/spacex-pays-singulus-67-million-for-the-first-starmind-solar-cell-line-its-first-priced-orbital-hardware