CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman dismissed the idea that space data centers would be a viable option in the coming years as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk pursues their implementation.
“I honestly think the idea of putting data centers in space is ridiculous in the current landscape,” Altman said in an interview with Indian Express. “It will make sense someday.”
Altman said it is based in space artificial intelligence (AI) Data center projects would face high launch costs and operational and maintenance challenges, such as repairing a broken or damaged component while the data center is in orbit.
“We’re not there yet. There will come a time. Orbital data centers are not something that will matter on a large scale this decade,” Altman said in the interview.
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Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said that while space-based data centers may be viable in the future, they are unlikely to be widely deployed this decade. (Ken Cedeno/Reuters/Reuters)
Musk from SpaceX said earlier this month at an event announcing SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI that AI’s energy needs will require moving data centers to space because of the strain it puts on the environment.
“In the long term it is space-based AI is clearly the only way to scale,” Musk said. “My estimate is that within two to three years, space will be the cheapest way to generate AI compute.”
SpaceX’s merger with xAI, the AI company that Musk founded and which subsequently acquired social media platform
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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sees space-based data centers as a solution to the environmental problems they pose on Earth. (Marc Piasecki/Getty Images/Getty Images)
SpaceX recently filed a document with the Federal Communications Commission requesting it launch up to 1 million satellites that would function as data centers in Earth’s orbit.
Musk said in a memo outlining his plans that SpaceX aims to put a million tons of satellites into orbit per year at 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 data centers in space. (Joe Skipper/Reuters)
Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman said at the Cisco AI Summit earlier this month: “There aren’t enough rockets yet to launch a million satellites, so we’re still a long way from that.”
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“If you think about the cost of getting a payload into space today, it’s enormous,” Garman added. “It’s just not economical.”
