One giant leap for AI

Critics call orbital data centers “peak insanity.” Engineers are chipping away at the challenges.

The AI boom has created a massive appetite for computing power. Global data center electricity demand is expected to double by 2030, according toGartner. These centers’ need for resources is straining the capacity of land-based infrastructure and sparking local opposition over utility bills and environmental impact.According to a growing chorus of tech leaders at Google, SpaceX and elsewhere, the answer is to expand off-planet, immediately. But aredata centersin space technically possible? And even if they are, what about their astronomical price tag?IBM Thinktalked to some of the researchers and entrepreneurs trying to make orbital data centers a reality.

The main draw is simple: continuous, unlimited energy. The sun emits more power than 100 trillion times humanity’s total electricity production. The challenge is figuring out how to efficiently harness it.That’s the thinking behind Google’sProject Suncatcher, a space data center moonshot project announced late last year and targeting test launches as early as 2027. “We want to put these data centers in space, closer to the sun,” Google’s Sundar Pichaisaidin a December interview. “We will send tiny, tiny racks of machines and have them in satellites, test them out, and then start scaling from there. But there is no doubt to me that, a decade or so away, we will be viewing it as a more normal way to build data centers.”Then there’s the impact terrestrial data centers have on the environment. The AI economy currently uses 23 cubic kilometers of water annually, but usage is predicted to jump by 129% by 2050, exceeding 54 cubic kilometers (14 trillion US gallons), according torecent research.“This planet is so beautiful, and so unusual, this is the one that we’re going to want to protect,” said Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos at a2024 summit. “There is no plan B.” This March, Bezos’s space technology company, Blue Origin,filedwith the FCC for permission to deploy nearly 52,000 satellites as part of Project Sunrise, its proposed orbital data center system.And, of course, there’s all the space in space.“In the long term, space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale,” Elon Muskwroteon SpaceX’s blog in February. “I mean, space is called ‘space’ for a reason.” That month, SpaceXfiledwith the FCC to launch as many as 1 million solar-powered satellites to create an orbital data center system—an epic number compared to the company’s competitors. Amazon filed a petition to deny SpaceX’s application, and astronomerssaidthe satellites would “permanently scar” the night sky.In March, SpaceXoffered a first lookat its plans, which would include a data center longer than the 109-meter International Space Station. SpaceX suggested future models could be larger still. “I think the cost of deployed AI in space will drop below the cost of terrestrial AI much sooner than people expect,” Musk said during the presentation. “I think it may be only two or three years.”