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Elon Musk’s SpaceX hopes to launch satellites into space that will serve as data centers.
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said placing data centers in space is currently not feasible.
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He called the idea “ridiculous” at an event in New Delhi.
It’s no secret that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman disagree on a number of things.
The latest point of contention: space data centers. Musk has made it a priority. Ultraman thinks this is just a fantasy, at least for now.
“Honestly, I think the idea of putting data centers in space is ridiculous under the current circumstances,” Altman said in a live interview with local media in New Delhi on Friday, drawing laughter from the audience.
Orbital data centers “will make sense one day,” Altman said, but factors such as launch costs and the difficulty of repairing computer chips in space remain huge obstacles.
“We’re not there yet,” Altman added. “There comes a time. Space is great for a lot of things. Orbital data centers are not going to be a thing in this decade.”
Musk would almost certainly disagree.
While many big tech and artificial intelligence companies spend billions building data centers around the planet, Musk, as always, has his sights set on the stars. Orbital data centers are his latest ambition, as he mentioned at the xAI plenary session in December.
In February, SpaceX said it aimed to launch “a constellation of 1 million satellites to operate as orbiting data centers.” The company has begun hiring engineers to make this happen.
During an all-hands meeting with xAI employees this month, Musk said SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI would allow them to deploy orbital data centers faster.
Despite Altman’s skepticism, other tech leaders are also racing to place data centers in space. Google’s Project Suncatcher, launching in November 2025, aims to achieve this goal. Google CEO Sundar Pichai told Fox News on Sunday that the company could begin placing solar-powered data centers in space as early as 2027.
Technology and artificial intelligence companies rely on data centers to power their products, such as large-scale language models and chatbots. However, these data centers can deplete water resources, stress the power grid, increase pollution and reduce overall quality of life.
one business insider investigation A report released last year showed that more than 1,200 data centers have been approved for construction across the United States by the end of 2024, a number that is almost four times the number in 2010.
Now, proposed data center campuses in Texas, Oklahoma and elsewhere are increasingly facing backlash from local communities.
Read the original article on Business Insider
