Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX are opening a new front in their rivalry, this time in space-based AI data centres, as the trillion-dollar computing boom looks beyond Earth.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, Blue Origin has spent more than a year developing technology for orbital AI data centers, working on how to run intensive computing workloads in space.
SpaceX, meanwhile, plans to use an upgraded generation of Starlink satellites that could host AI computing payloads in orbit. The company is pitching that concept to investors as part of a secondary share sale that could value SpaceX at about 800 billion dollars, positioning it among the most valuable private companies in the world.
The idea is to put serious computing power into orbit, but the technical and economic hurdles are significant. Satellites would need to deliver performance that can compete with massive ground based data centers packed with advanced chips, while dealing with tight constraints on power, cooling, latency and maintenance.
Supporters argue that space based data centers could eventually offer strategic advantages, including global coverage, security benefits and closer integration with satellite networks. Critics counter that costs and technical risks are likely to remain far higher than for traditional facilities on Earth, especially if energy and grid bottlenecks ease over time.
Even with those doubts, the concept has clearly captured the attention of leaders in both AI and space technology, turning low Earth orbit into the next battleground for cloud and AI infrastructure.
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