Here in the world, regulators and citizens alike are realizing that there may be a bottom line to meet the needs of AI data centers and companies that would build it. But in space, no one can hear the demand for energy and the “economic” benefits of these large infrastructures. That’s why Jeff Bezos (who announced his big Prometheus for Ai Hardware) and thousands of other Tech writers are reaching for the stars to put data centers in Orbit, via the Wall Street Journal.
The concept of a state-of-the-art data center has been floating around for some time now. Bezos spoke regularly at Italian Tech last week, where he told the audience, “we will be able to beat the cost of the world’s data centers in space in the next few decades.” CEO Sundar Pichage announced the company’s location-based data center, called Project Suncatcher, earlier this month. NVIDIA also got in on the action, announcing the Orbital data center program. Blue Deo CEO Dave limp recently said that we will have data centers in space “in our lifetime.”
And of course, Elon Musk has made an ambitious and optimistic vision of how AI in space might play out. In a recent appearance at the Baron’s capital conference, Musk suggested that starlink satellites would be able to produce 100 gigawatts a year by harnessing solar energy. “We have a plan to get it done,” he said. “It’s crazy.” There has never been a more friendly audience to receive that message: Baron Capital backed by Musk’s $1 Trillion Pay package at Tesla, and Ron Baron, retweeted the latest CNBC, including the latest CNBC.
Tech That Uses Clutter in the space with its AI data centers has faith in Phil Metzger, a research professor at the University of Central Florida. As the WSJ points out, Metzger recently revealed his support for the data space race, writing on x, “I initially expect it will be 30-50 years before it predicts 10 to 11 years.”
There are several obvious reasons why targeting stars makes sense for data centers. Orbital data centers can save us from selling all of our most valuable real estate on Earth to big boxes, mostly empty of whirring fans and information chips. And they will be near the sun to take advantage of the solar energy capabilities. But actually achieving this objective is not as easy as just shooting some orbit servers. Data centers generate a lot of heat and need to be cooled, and simply letting the heat run down the space is not efficient and may not be enough. Building data centers in space is possible, but maintaining them would be difficult – and any failure would be much more difficult than on Earth.
Then there’s the fact that we’re already dealing with a full orbital environment. A recent study found that satellites in orbit have made ellion-avoidance seven times more often than in the past few countries, and those safety measures will increase where we send where we send in orbit.
We have another option: pump the brakes on the AI BADDOUT before we become so overwhelming that we contaminate the planet with technology that could possibly be used in any meaningful way. Unfortunately, it looks like that would be a very large moonson.
