NEED TO KNOW
- Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos and SpaceX founder Elon Musk are each working to launch AI data centers in space, according to a report
- The news comes amid an AI boom — with about 4,000 data centers in the U.S. either in operation or under construction, a recent report noted
- Data centers in space could alleviate the strain of extracting tremendous amounts of energy on Earth to power AI computing
Tech billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are igniting another space-related rivalry between each other — this one involving AI data centers, according to a report.
Bezos and Musk, the founders of private space travel companies Blue Origin and SpaceX, respectively, are working on deploying AI data centers in orbit, The Wall Street Journal reported.
A source told the Journal that Bezos’ Blue Origin team has been working on the technology for the data centers in space for over a year — while other sources told the paper that Musk’s SpaceX is planning to launch an upgraded version of its Starlink satellites to provide AI computing payloads.
PEOPLE contacted Bezos, Blue Origin and SpaceX on Friday, Dec. 12, for comments.
The reporting comes amid an AI boom — with about 4,000 data centers in the U.S. either in operation or under construction, a recent report by the Pew Research Center noted. Meanwhile, according to management consulting firm McKinsey, data centers are expected to spend $6.7 trillion globally by 2030 in order to keep up with the computing power.
The Journal report noted there are technical challenges in deploying satellites carrying AI computing capability, as well as the financial costs of launching those devices into space. However, the presence of data centers in space could alleviate the strain of extracting tremendous amounts of energy on Earth for the training of AI models.
Residents in the U.S. are reportedly facing increased prices for electricity with the presence of nearby data centers. A 2024 report from the U.S. Department of Energy found that data centers used approximately 4.4% of total U.S. electricity in 2023, and are expected to consume about 6.7 to 12% of U.S. electricity by 2028.
“Taking resource-intensive infrastructure off Earth has been an idea for years, but it has required launch and satellite costs to come down. We are nearing that point,” Will Marshall, co-founder of satellite imaging company Planet Labs, told the Journal.
In November, Google announced that it is partnering with Planet Lab to send two prototype satellites that would explore “how an interconnected network of solar-powered satellites, equipped with our Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) AI chips, could harness the full power of the Sun.” Both companies are aiming to launch the satellites in early 2027.
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