A startup developing technology to harness solar energy in space is teaming up with big tech companies to build a data center in Earth orbit. AtherFlux, a US-based company, announced Tuesday that it plans to launch its first data center satellite as early as 2027 – the first piece of a larger constellation of satellites it is calling the “Galactic Brain.”
Tech companies are running into the physical limits of their AI ambitions on Earth – namely the need for more space and power for data centres. One possible solution they’re exploring is to try to send some of those data centers into orbit, where they could run on solar power around the clock.
“The elephant in the room is that our current energy plans won’t get us there fast enough.”
“The race for artificial general intelligence is fundamentally a race for compute capacity and, by extension, energy. The elephant in the room is that our current energy plans won’t get us there fast enough,” AtherFlux founder and CEO Baiju Bhatt — who also co-founded Robinhood — says in a Press release“The Galactic Brain harnesses sunlight next to silicon and skips the power grid altogether,”
EtherFlux faces competition from Google, Blue Origin and SpaceX, which are also studying the feasibility of orbital data center satellites. Equipped with photovoltaic panels, they will be able to run on solar power without having to face the setting sun. AetherFlux says its technology builds on its existing efforts to deploy satellites that can transmit solar energy to Earth via lasers.
AtherFlux and its competitors will face other challenges before data centers begin orbiting Earth. Although launch costs have come down over the years, it is still extremely expensive to launch and operate these things in space. They must also ensure that AI chips can withstand high radiation and avoid collisions with other satellites in orbit when space becomes more crowded.
