SpaceX executives have stated that the company is aiming to launch initial demonstrations of space-based AI computing infrastructure by late 2027 [2]. Having almost 70% of all active satellites in Earth orbit (just over 11,000), the company is planning to launch a 42,000-satellite constellation into orbit soon, encircling the world like a mesh [3]. Their ambition appears to be the creation of orbital AI data centers: machines above the Earth with near-constant access to solar energy, able to radiate excess heat into the vacuum of space, avoiding the need for water-intensive cooling systems while preparing to wrap the planet in a new layer of corporate infrastructure within the next few years. And ultimately, they claim to be “the only company with a commercially viable path to building orbital AI compute at scale.”
To finance this ambition, they need greater liquidity and capital, which is why they have conducted an initial public offering, or IPO, which started trading on the tech-heavy Nasdaq stock index on June 12. As tempting as the financial incentive may be, given the company’s high technological potential, anyone considering buying its shares should take the opportunity with a grain of salt. Literally, the word “salt” should take us back to its historical connection with the East India Company: an uncontrolled, unregulated, and monopolized corporation that took over India through Indian capital, Indian revenues, and Indian armies, to the point where even salt, an essential mineral, was heavily taxed, and Indians could be punished if they tried to produce it themselves.
The East India Company operated like a corporate state, a joint-stock corporation driven by profit and shareholders in the 18th century. It began as a trading company, run by just over 30 clerks in a London office, with the goal of reaching the East Indies (Indonesia) for the lucrative spice trade. But through war, bribery, and political manipulation, this small commercial venture transformed into a monopoly. There was a long history of exploitation driven by barbaric corporate policies, carried out with the help of local Indian financiers and hundreds of thousands of Indian soldiers — including around 200,000 sepoys, twice the size of the British army at the time — who became willing participants in building the corporation’s power [4]. The EIC even taxed the Indian population to purchase salt, establishing a monopoly on the manufacture and sale of this essential mineral by legally prohibiting Indians from producing or harvesting it—a ban which lasted until Gandhi’s iconic 1930 Salt March [5].
This historical event remains relevant because of the warning it carries for the present: the East India Company’s unregulated power should make us look more carefully at modern tech giants, and at the danger of unregulated corporate monopoly gaining the ability to shape, pressure, and even dictate global politics.
Once such infrastructure surrounds the planet, it does not merely connect the world; it begins to collect, route, and command the data of humanity. And data, once gathered at this scale, is no longer just information. It becomes power. That power enables surveillance, and surveillance enables manipulative control [6]. What people see, what they forget, what they fear, what they desire, and what they remember can all be quietly and easily shaped through AI systems. In this way, colonialism can be exercised not by armies marching on land, but by the monopolistic company’s algorithms around the Earth: The shares we buy might feed the fire that consumes us.
Moreover, who owns the Earth’s orbit anyway? The Outer Space Treaty declares outer space as the “province of all mankind,” open to exploration and use by all states for the benefit of humanity [7]. But this statement of "universal access" hides a spiteful inequality: the right to enter space does not mean the power to do so. It is like telling a homeless person that everyone has the right to shop at Harrods or Saks Fifth Avenue. In theory, the principle is equal; in practice, only the rich can use it. Can poorer nations compete with corporations building thousands of satellites above their heads? If not, then the expression of “all mankind” should be updated to “all Western, white, and privileged few mankind.”
Some tech companies do not even bother to hide their intentions. Palantir is one of the horrible examples: Its technology has played a significant role in modern AI warfare, while its public statements openly embrace its relationship with the genocide in Gaza [8]. All the while, our amnesia and inertia give them the audacity to expand, as war, occupation, and corporate power are normalized before our eyes. I suspect that AI algorithms play a significant role in making us forget what once shocked us, turning yesterday’s outrage into old news. We have already long forgotten the over 20,000 children brutally killed in Gaza [9] or the abused children on Epstein Island.
If anyone keeps on dreaming that their shares in SpaceX will bring them profit, they should consider that their investment may help the company build a monopoly powerful enough to claim humanity’s air, water, salt, memories, and whatnot.
[1] Investing in SpaceX: A path toward a planetary panopticon: A panopticon is an idea of a prison or surveillance system – originated by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham – where people can be watched at any time, but they do not know when they are being watched.
[2] https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/spacex-aims-launch-orbital-ai-computing-tests-by-end-next-year-sources-say-2026-06-09/
[3] https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-satellites.html
[4] The Anarchy: The relentless rise of the East India Company, with author William Dalrymple
[5] Gandhi's Salt March, The Tax Protest that changed Indian History, https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/Gandhis-salt-march-the-tax-protest-that-changed-Indian-history.php
[6] The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, By Shoshana Zuboff
[7] Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies
[8] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/21/technofacism-why-palantirs-pro-west-manifesto-has-critics-alarmed
[9] https://www.unicef.org/sop/reports/unicef-state-palestine-humanitarian-situation-update
*Opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Anadolu.
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