FOX Business reporter Madison Alworth reports on Lonestar planning AI data centers in space, with satellites launching this fall and goals for moon centers in 2030 from Varney & Co.
CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman has dismissed the idea of data centers in space as a viable option in the next few years as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk pursues their deployment.
“Honestly I think the current idea of putting data centers in space is ridiculous,” Altman said in an interview with the Indian Express. “It will be heard one day.”
Altman said it depends on the area artificial intelligence (AI) data center projects will have to deal with high start-up costs and operational and maintenance challenges, such as how to repair a broken or damaged component while the data center is in orbit.
“We’re not there yet. It’s going to take time. Orbital data centers are not something that’s going to be important at scale in this decade,” Altman said in an interview.
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that while space-based data centers may work in the future, they probably won’t be used at scale this decade. (Ken Cedeno/Reuters/Reuters)
Musk of SpaceX he said earlier this month at an event announcing SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI that the power demands of AI will require moving data centers into space because of the strain it places on the environment.
“In the long run, Space-based AI it’s clearly the only way to scale,” Musk said. “My estimate is that within 2 to 3 years, the lowest-cost way to produce an AI computer will be in space.”
The merger of SpaceX and xAI, the AI company Musk founded and went on to acquire the X social network, aims to create a company worth more than $1 trillion before a planned initial public offering that will enable them to raise capital and accelerate plans to send data centers into space.
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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sees space-based data centers as a solution to environmental challenges facing Earth. (Marc Piasecki/Getty Images/Getty Images)
SpaceX recently filed a document with the Federal Communications Commission requesting to launch up to a million satellites that could serve as data centers in Earth orbit.
Musk said in a memo explaining his plans that SpaceX aims to put a million tons of satellites into orbit per year with 100 kilowatts of computing power per ton, adding 100 gigawatts of AI computing capacity per year.
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SpaceX is planning a constellation of satellites that could serve as space-based data centers. (Joe Skipper/Reuters)
Other tech companies pursuing space-based data centers include Google, as CEO Sundar Pichai told “Fox News on Sunday“The company may put solar-powered data centers into space as soon as next year as part of what’s known as Project Suncatcher.
Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman said at the Cisco AI Conference earlier this month, “there aren’t enough rockets to launch a million satellites, so we’re a long way from that.”
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“If you think about the cost of getting a payload into space today, it’s huge,” Garman added. “It’s not just saving money.”
