Washington Is Backing a $5 Billion Plan to Squeeze More Power Out of Old Wires. Elon Musk Is Skipping the Wires.
Washington, D.C., Oct. 17, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- America is running short on power. So Washington is trying to squeeze more out of the power lines it already has.
The Energy Department is putting $1.9 billion into 31 grid projects across 26 states. Add in what the companies are chipping in, and the total tops $5 billion. The goal: free up more than 20 gigawatts of extra capacity without building a single new power plant.
“These investments will get more out of the infrastructure we already have, move more electricity across the grid,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said.
In a new free presentation, tech expert James Altucher says Elon Musk has taken a very different route. Musk has “secured his new real estate,” Altucher says. “And it’s up in space.”
Patching a Grid That Wasn’t Built for AI
Here’s what the money buys. More than 1,500 miles of power line rebuilt or rewired to carry more electricity. New grid technology across nearly 21,000 more. About 100 million Americans served.
It’s happening because demand is climbing again after years of barely moving. Data centers and AI are a big part of the reason.
The problem is speed. A data center can go up fast. Power lines, power plants and heavy grid gear can take years.
Altucher says AI will need thousands more giant data centers to reach its full potential. “But it’s just not possible with our current power infrastructure,” he says.
The Fight on the Ground
Power isn’t the only problem on the ground. Altucher points out that lawmakers across 30 states have filed more than 300 bills to slow data center projects down. Local communities have killed $98 billion in proposed builds.
Musk, Altucher says, decided not to fight that battle. “He’s not building on Earth anymore,” Altucher says. “He’s completely given up on that.”
Musk’s Answer Is in Orbit
Altucher points to a SpaceX filing with the FCC as proof. In it, he says, Musk “went straight to the federal government and asked for first dibs on property in space for his fleet of one million AI satellites.”
Up there, the sun does the work. “There will be no permitting issues,” Altucher says. “There will be no complaints from locals.”
That doesn’t make it easy. Launch costs, radiation and communications are all hard problems. But Musk holds a card no one else does. “With SpaceX… Elon is the only man on earth who can reliably send satellites to space,” Altucher says.
What Altucher Says People Are Missing
His presentation isn’t really about where the power comes from. It’s about what a space network would still need.
Thousands of computers in orbit have to talk to each other and to the ground, fast. “It takes an incredibly specialized nervous system to transmit the amount of data these AI1 satellites will process,” Altucher says.
That’s where he lands on one small supplier, a company he says has already produced more than 5 billion chips for Musk.
Washington is squeezing more out of the wires. Musk is going around them.
About This Presentation
Rockets. Satellites. AI. Chips. James Altucher says Elon Musk is pulling them all under one roof. His free presentation explains how the pieces fit together, what the SpaceX filing reveals and the one outside supplier he believes could become critical to the plan. Watch it now, on demand.
About James Altucher
James Altucher is a Wall Street veteran who has spent more than 30 years working where technology and money meet. He has managed hedge funds, designed his own AI-driven trading algorithms and raised capital for venture investments. He’s been featured on CNBC, Fox Business and in The Wall Street Journal. He also hosts The James Altucher Show podcast, where he has interviewed some of the biggest names in finance and business.