OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has sharply criticized Tesla CEO Elon Musk's space data center concept, calling it "an absurd idea." He argues that massive launch costs and technical maintenance challenges make near-term commercialization unlikely.
According to The Information and other U.S. technology media outlets on the 22nd (local time), Altman stated in a recent interview with Indian media that "frankly speaking, the idea of deploying data centers in space under current circumstances is absurd."
Musk has been pursuing space data centers as an alternative solution to terrestrial power shortages and soaring cooling costs. The approach involves loading artificial intelligence chips onto satellites to perform computations directly in space, which he believes could maximize operational efficiency in the long term. This concept has regained attention recently as Musk pursues the merger and public listing of space company SpaceX and AI startup xAI to realize this vision. However, many in the industry point out that high launch costs and practical constraints on equipment repairs undermine economic viability. Altman, who has repeatedly clashed with Musk, has now publicly voiced this perspective.
Altman's pessimistic view stems from the difficulty of maintaining AI chips in space. He explained, "You have to consider how to repair a broken graphics processing unit (GPU) in space first, and we haven't reached that stage technologically yet." He added that while "space is useful for various fields," he emphasized that "the likelihood of space data centers becoming significant at scale within 10 years is low."
Despite considerable skepticism from Altman and others in the industry, global technology companies are increasingly joining the race to build space data centers. Google's "Project Suncatcher," unveiled in November last year, is a prime example. The project aims to launch satellites equipped with Google's proprietary Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) to perform computations directly in space. Business Insider noted that "other tech leaders are joining the space data center competition."