Putting AI servers in space has been discussed as a holy grail of sorts for some time now. The economics of an orbiting data center would benefit from always-available solar power, even considering the relative difficulty in cooling the rack units. The main issue is the stratospheric price tag of lifting that compute to orbit. Now, though, according to a Wall Street Journal report, Google believes that SpaceX might be able to make the dream real.
According to the report, Google is in talks with SpaceX and a few other contenders about this strategy, though given how Elon Musk's orbital enterprise has steadily become by far the main player in commercial launches, it's the clear front-runner in those talks. Google's move may be related to the company's Project Suncatcher initiative, revealed last November, that intends to send satellites laden with Google Tensor Processing Units (AI chips) into orbit starting in 2027.
The notion of space AI datacenters has long been derided as a fever dream, even by OpenAI honcho Sam Altman himself, given the financial delta-V required to place thinking rocks in orbit. Estimates pin the theoretical launch cost for SpaceX itself at around $2,700 per kilogram, an amount that works out to a best-case scenario of $3,400/kg for a customer, assuming a completely stuffed rocket — something that's hard to achieve in practice.
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