Amazon founder Jeff Bezos predicted on Friday (3rd) that in the next 10 to 20 years, gigawatt data centers will be built in space. Due to the sustainable supply of solar energy, the performance of these data centers in space will eventually surpass...
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos predicted on Friday (3rd) that in the next 10 to 20 years, gigawatt data centers will be built in space. Due to the sustainable supply of solar energy, the performance of these data centers in space will eventually surpass facilities on Earth.
Bezos said in a fireside chat with Ferrari and Stellantis Chairman John Elkann at Italian Tech Week, "One of the things that will happen next, I can't say the exact time, but I expect that in about 10 years or less, no more than 20 years, we will start building these giant gigawatt data centers in space."
Due to the increasing demand for power and cooling water for data centers on Earth, the concept of "orbital data centers" has gradually attracted attention.
Bezos believes that these large training clusters are best built in space, because there is all-weather solar energy, no clouds, no rain, and no weather interference. Within the next few decades, space will be able to beat the cost of ground-based data centers.
Bezos continued, "This is already happening on weather satellites and communication satellites. The next step is data centers, and then there will be other types of manufacturing." In other words, in the next twenty years, the sun's continuous supply of photon energy will drive gigawatt-level data centers and fill the Earth's orbit.
However, building data centers in space also faces its own challenges, such as difficulties in maintenance and upgrades, high rocket launch costs, and the risk of launch failure. Realizing that dream will require heavy-lift launch vehicles to carry various components to orbit and back to Earth, and Bezos' Blue Origin is building just such a rocket.
Even if there is sufficient power supply, the orbital data center still needs to effectively dissipate gigawatts of heat energy, which mainly relies on radiation. The radiators on the International Space Station (ISS) can only dissipate a maximum of about 70 kilowatts of heat energy. In addition, data center operators will have to deal with frequent bit flips unless the cabin is adequately protected against solar charged particles and cosmic rays from outer space.
Another problem is the "latency" situation. Access latencies vary when the data center is parked at different altitudes, ranging from about 20–40 ms in low Earth orbit to potentially as high as 600 ms for geostationary satellites. Compared to the terrestrial data center network, this is simply a long wait. However, Bezos believes that while these facilities are not suitable for certain latency-sensitive workloads, space data centers may be ideal for workloads with lower latency requirements and higher energy consumption.
In addition, talking about the AI wave, Bezos believes that it is similar to the Internet bubble period in early 2000, with a lot of hype in the early stage and a possible crash later. He said that we should be extremely optimistic about the positive impact of AI on society and life. Just like the impact of the Internet 25 years ago, it is real and long-lasting. It is important to separate the possible bubble and the consequences of its collapse from the actual reality. The benefits of AI will be widespread and accessible to every corner.
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