"On Monday, Elon Musk announced that he was merging two of his companies, SpaceX and xAI, in a deal said to be worth $1.25 trillion. The reason, Musk said in an announcement, was that in order for AI to grow, it needed to go to space. AI relies on "large terrestrial data centers" that run on "immense amounts of power and cooling," he said, which comes at great expense to the environment and community opposition."
"On the surface, it sounds like a logical solution to the unique problem presented by power-hungry data centers. Local communities are rising up against data center projects over concerns about electricity demand, water usage, and rising utility rates. Launching those data centers into space means they are not taking up any space on Earth, and in a sun-synchronous orbit there is the availability of solar energy."
SpaceX and xAI are merging to pursue space-based AI data centers as a way to scale AI while avoiding the power, cooling, and local impacts of terrestrial facilities. The rationale cites that terrestrial data centers require immense power and cooling and face environmental and community opposition. Google, China, and Europe are also exploring solar-powered, satellite-based AI data centers. Companies envision satellites with solar panels to host AI workloads. Local resistance to land-based centers stems from concerns about electricity demand, water usage, and rising utility rates, while sun-synchronous orbits offer persistent solar energy for orbiting data centers.
Read at The Verge
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