Data centers will someday need to relocate from Earth to space if artificial intelligence is to continue growing, according to Jeff Bezos. During last week’s Italian Tech Week in Turin, the founder of Blue Origin and Amazon stated that moving these facilities off-planet was the best approach to lessen their environmental effect.
Many in the scientific community and the larger environmental movement share Bezos’ concerns. Scientists are concerned that Earth’s resources may not be able to keep up with the growing artificial intelligence. In response, Bezos said that over the next ten to twenty years, people would begin constructing gigawatt-scale orbital data centers.
He believes that space will continue to improve Earth. This has already happened with weather satellites. It has already happened to communication satellites. The next phase will be data centers and other forms of manufacturing.
Resources on Earth are being strained by data centers
The building of data centers is booming as big firms invest billions in AI. The computational infrastructure required to train and implement AI models is housed in these facilities, which run on massive volumes of water and electricity.
Data centers use around 560 billion liters of water annually worldwide, and by 2030, that amount may increase to 1,200 billion liters, according to a research released in April by the International Energy Agency. Data centers’ worldwide power usage has increased by almost 12% annually since 2017, according to the research, and is expected to reach 415 terawatt-hours in 2024. That is sufficient to power tens of millions of households.
Orbital data centers are not a novel idea as a possible solution. The concept has been hailed by Bezos and other tech titans as a successful means of bolstering the AI boom without increasing the need for power and water.
This is how it would function.
Exploiting infinite resources in space
There is an abundance of solar energy and very frigid temperatures in space. Theoretically, we could run massive data centers with these continuously accessible resources without relying on Earth for energy and water.
Because we have solar power there all the time, it will be preferable to build these enormous training clusters in space, Bezos stated. There is no weather, no rain, and no clouds. In the coming decades, we will be able beat terrestrial data centers in space in terms of cost.
Additionally, orbital data centers would contribute to a reduction in global water and air pollution. Though they would not directly affect our planet in space, traditional data centers release greenhouse gases and other pollutants that are bad for the environment and public health. Bezos has already promoted the concept of putting factories in orbit and relocating other industrial operations off Earth in order to protect our planet.
Bezos’ concept is already being pursued by a few businesses. The Florida-based company Lonestar Data Holdings declared in March that it had successfully tested a book-sized miniature data center in space. Earlier this year, Intuitive Machines’ Athena Lunar Lander, which was launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carried the “Freedom” data center cargo to the moon.
Still, there is still a long way to go before the enormous facilities Bezos is referring to can be constructed. To accomplish such a feat, various obstacles must be overcome, which may take decades. But as AI gets more and more integrated into our daily lives, it will be crucial to develop creative strategies to lessen its negative effects on Earth.
