Data Centers in Orbit Could Make a Lot of Sense

At first, it seemed like an outlandish idea.

A Data Center in space, as imagined by Meta AI

The former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, was recently involved in acquiring the startup Relativity Space. He suggested that this acquisition aims to put data centers in orbit.

Data centers in outer space? Really?

If you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. First, there is currently a rapidly increasing demand for computing capacity, mainly linked to AI developments, and this (presently unmet) demand for electricity to power AI data centers.

Several projects are underway to meet the demand for electricity, such as Google and Microsoft’s proposal for nuclear plants. In particular, Google decided to develop three project sites for advanced reactors, each generating at least 600 megawatts of power capacity. Ten-gigawatt data centers will soon become common. However, the energy costs will be in the trillions, and the environmental impact of these projects is a threat that is hard to ignore.

I recently grabbed a copy of the McKinsey report “The cost of compute: A $7 trillion race to scale data centers.” Just from the title, you get the gist of what’s inside.

Just consider the following terrifying projections:

• By 2030, computing power demand will require an investment of…