On February 21, when OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attended a public event in New Delhi, India, he made a sharp assessment of Elon Musk’s plan to “move data centers to space”, saying that the idea was “ridiculous” under current technology and cost conditions, sparking laughter from the audience.
Altman said that in the long run, deploying data centers into Earth orbit "will one day make sense," but with the current launch costs and the difficulty of repairing chips and other hardware in space, this idea is far from feasible.
"Honestly speaking, based on the current technology landscape, putting data centers in space is a ridiculous idea." Altman said in a live interview with local media. He stressed that orbital data centers may come in handy at some point in the future, but "we're not quite there yet." In his view, space has huge potential in many areas, but "orbital data centers" are unlikely to have a real impact at scale, at least this decade.
Those who hold a clearly different stance from Altman are SpaceX and its leader Musk. The report pointed out that while many technology and artificial intelligence companies are still focusing on ground data center infrastructure, Musk is still looking to space and regards "space data centers" as a new direction of attack. He previously mentioned this ambition in xAI’s all-hands meeting and regarded it as part of the company’s long-term development blueprint. In February, SpaceX said it aimed to launch a constellation of up to "one million satellites" that would serve as data centers in orbit. In order to promote the implementation of the plan, SpaceX has begun to recruit relevant engineers. The specific positions are directed towards the design, deployment and maintenance of on-orbit data processing facilities.
Musk also said in a recent all-hands meeting with xAI employees that SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI will help it deploy orbital data centers faster and further connect multiple links such as rocket launches, satellite networks and artificial intelligence computing. Although Altman publicly poured cold water, other large technology companies are also exploring similar directions. Google announced "Project Suncatcher" in November 2025, which plans to send solar-powered data centers into space. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in a TV interview that the company could start sending the first space data centers into orbit as soon as 2027.
Currently, the core products of large technology companies and AI companies, such as large models and chatbots, are highly dependent on energy-intensive data centers to run. Not only do these facilities consume large amounts of electricity, they may also draw large amounts of water, increase pollution, and crowd out local infrastructure, raising concerns about the environment and quality of life among residents. A Business Insider survey last year showed that by the end of 2024, more than 1,200 data centers had been approved for construction in the United States, nearly four times the number in 2010. As expansion accelerates, new data center campuses in Texas, Oklahoma and other places are facing growing opposition from local communities, with some public hearings even seeing conflicts and arrests.
In this context, “sending data centers to the sky” is seen by some advocates as a potential path that bypasses ground resources and residents’ protests. However, in Altman’s view, at least for the foreseeable decade, this path is more like a “science fiction blueprint” than a realistic option. On the issue of whether and when space data centers are feasible, these two influential technological leaders in the fields of artificial intelligence and aerospace have once again shown clear and difficult to reconcile differences.