Hello, welcome to TechScape. I’m Blake Montgomery, writing to you from under a few inches of snow in New York City. This Week in Tech: Analyzing the pushback to Donald Trump’s executive order on AI; OpenAI goes on the defensive; And data centers attempt to launch into orbit.
The tech industry got what it paid for Trump
Donald Trump’s executive order, which blocks states from passing laws regulating AI and threatens punitive action such as halting federal broadband funding, is a victory for tech industry leaders and lobbyists who have campaigned passionately against AI regulation. It also signals that the tech industry’s embrace of Trump, which has included CEOs giving him gifts, attending dinners at Mar-a-Lago and donating to the construction of a new White House ballroom, may be paying off.
While tech leaders like OpenAI’s Sam Altman have previously spoken out about the existential threats of AI, the industry has shifted messaging during the second Trump administration. Tech companies and their lobbyists now argue that their technology will spur unprecedented economic growth, while also warning that regulation would gift China an edge in the AI arms race. Companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Nvidia have spent millions of dollars on lobbying efforts. Authorities have advised Trump is against allowing state laws to rein in his companies.
Despite bipartisan backlash to block state regulation and widespread public concern over AI’s threats to the power grid and copyright law, Silicon Valley’s efforts appear to have won. While state officials have questioned the legality of the executive order, and it is likely to be challenged in court, the message from the White House to AI companies is that growth is more important than security to the administration.
OpenAI goes on the defensive against Google
Three years after OpenAI released a chatbot (built on Google’s research), Google has caught up. The success of the latest version of Gemini, coupled with the insane popularity of image editor and animator Nano Banana, has put Google at the forefront of the AI race.
There are signs that OpenAI is nervous. The first, and most obvious, is that Sam Altman announced a “Code Red” to his staff shortly after the November launch of Gemini 3. “We are at a critical time for ChatGPT,” he said.
There are other signs too. OpenAI is running ads for ChatGPT during football games to recruit new users. it is bought billboard space Near Google’s big office in New York City’s Meatpacking District and along the highways outside San Francisco. Maybe Times Square is next.
Altman himself appeared on Jimmy Fallon in an effort to reach the late-night talk show’s mainstream audience directly. They talked mostly about parenting, which is a far more relevant topic than AI model benchmarks.
Data centers, already covering the Earth, begin to populate outer space
Tech giants are building data centers, the physical engines of artificial intelligence, that measure half a mile (about a kilometer in length) to power their products, but they’re thinking on a larger scale. No expanse is too big for these ambitions, no limit is too far, including the last one.
In early November, startup StarCloud launched a satellite into orbit carrying a powerful Nvidia H100 chip. This month, the company announced that the chip was used to train Google’s large language model, Gemma, during the satellite’s orbit and that the model can now answer questions from space. Other startups are also striving for similar positions, including one company that says it’s “galactic brain,
Why would these companies undertake the highly complex endeavor of launching AI inside space? My colleague Robert Booth reports on Google’s approach to this effort. The company in November revealed a new research initiative called Project Suncatcher that includes plans to launch its own chips into orbit on two satellites in 2027:
Google scientists and engineers believe that about 80 solar-powered satellites equipped with the powerful processors needed to meet the growing demand for AI could be arranged in orbit about 400 miles above the Earth’s surface.
According to Google research released in November, space launch prices are falling so rapidly that by the mid-2030s the operating costs of a space-based datacenter could be equal to that of a datacenter on Earth. The use of satellites can also reduce the impact on land and water resources required to cool existing datacenters.
However, a Google executive poured cold water on the sci-fi possibilities of orbital data centers. Travis Beals told wall street journal Replicating a one gigawatt data center would require deploying 10,000 satellites. According to a Harvard astronomer, there are about 11,700 active satellites in orbit today The numbers have been tracked since 1989most of them – about 8,700 – Belongs to Elon Musk.
Jeff Bezos’s rocket company, Blue Origin, is best known for almost ridding the world of Katy Perry. working for the better part of a year To launch data centers into space, which are essentially arrays of semiconductor chips on satellites powered by solar panels facing the Sun. Water is not required to cool the chips, as is the case with terrestrial data centers. Space is already cold enough. AI requires abundant and consistent electricity, which the Earth is having difficulty supplying. Constant exposure to the sun offers a solution.
I previously thought that Starcloud was owned by Elon Musk, the creator of Starlink, but that is not the case. Musk has said that Starlink will similarly “build data centers in space,” which is a goofy way of phrasing things, but his company is also the single-largest operator of satellites in the world by a significant margin, so take what he says with a grain of salt. According to the Journal, his company plans to upgrade its existing satellite models to facilitate the construction of orbital data centers. According to reports last week, SpaceX is likely to hold its initial public offering next year, valuing it between $800 billion and $1 trillion, potentially making it the most valuable startup in history. According to the Journal, redirecting the vast sums being spent on data centers on Earth could create a new direction of business for Musk’s aerospace company, a possibility that Musk’s lieutenants have cited in their sales pitches.
