4 ms·

It has been widely reported for weeks that SpaceX is planning to go public in a few months. The reason is they have big plans to run a vast network of AI server

by spikels 8mo ago

It has been widely reported for weeks that SpaceX is planning to go public in a few months. The reason is they have big plans to run a vast network of AI servers in orbit and will need to raise a massive amount of funding. xAI merger fits with that plan. I'd assume SpaceX still plans to go public. Was ignored on HN but here's an article explaining: https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/12/after-years-of-resisting-it-spacex-now-plans-to-go-public-why/ https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/12/after-years-of-resisti...

kortex 8mo ago
lol WHAT? AI datacenters are bottlenecked by power, bandwidth, cooling, and maintenance. Ok sure maybe the Sun provides ample power, but if you are in LEO, you still have to deal with Earth's shadow, which means batteries, which means weight. Bandwidth you have via starlink, fine. But cooling in space is not trivial. And maintenance is out, unless they are also planning some kooky docking astromech satellite repair robot ecosystem. Maybe the Olney's lesions are starting to take their toll. Weirdest freaking timeline.
- crote 8mo ago
  The shadow thing can be solved by using a sun-synchronous orbit. See for example the TRACE solar observation satellite, which used a dawn/dusk orbit to maintain a constant view of the sun. Cooling, on the other hand? No way in hell.
  - giancarlostoro 8mo ago
    The cooling is the bit where I'm lost on, but it will be interesting to see what they pull off. It feels like everyone forgets Elon hires very smart people to work on these problems, it's not all figured out by Elon Musk solely.
    - spikels 8mo ago
      Google, Blue Origin and a bunch of other companies have announced plans for data centers in space. I don't think cooling is the showstopper some assume.
      - giancarlostoro 8mo ago
        Good call out, and really interesting. SpaceX being the cheapest way to get things into space, it seems like SpaceX is about to become extremely lucrative.
      - deleted 8mo ago
        [deleted]
  - clausz 8mo ago
    Every telco satellite can cool its electronics. However, more than a few kW is difficult. The ISS has around 100kW and is huge and in a shadow half the time.
  - SJC_Hacker 8mo ago
    > Cooling, on the other hand? No way in hell. Space is actually really cold when the sun is blocked So, solar panels on side, GPUs on the other, maybe with a big ass radiator ...
    - kristjansson 8mo ago
      Space is empty, not cold.
      - SJC_Hacker 8mo ago
        > Space is empty, not cold. The "dark" side of the JWST has temperature of about 40 K (-233 C)
    - derrida 8mo ago
      How does a radiator work in a vacuum?
airza 8mo ago
it wasn't ignored on HN, there were many articles correctly noting that building data centers in space is a stupid stupid idea because cooling things there is infeasible
- spikels 8mo ago
  Google, Blue Origin and at least 5 other smaller companies have announced plans to build data centers in space. My understanding is the cooling issue is not the show stopper you assume.
  - bhadass 8mo ago
    yup, bezos said "we will be able to beat the cost of terrestrial data centers in space in the next couple of decades". presumably this means they'll need huge ass radiators, so its all about bringing down launch costs since they'll need to increase mass.
    - deleted 8mo ago
      [deleted]
  - gulfofamerica 8mo ago
    [dead]
- woah 8mo ago
  Was doing some back of the envelope math with chatGPT so take it with a grain of salt, but it sounds like in ideal conditions a radiator of 1m square could dissipate 300w. If this is the case, then it seems like you could approach a viable solution if putting stuff in space was free. What i can't figure out is how the cost of launch makes sense and what the benefit over building it on the ground could be
  - deleted 8mo ago
    [deleted]
  - spikels 8mo ago
kevin_thibedeau 8mo ago
> a vast network of AI servers in orbit That story makes no technical sense. There's no benefit to doing this. Nobody should believe it any more than boots on Mars by 2030.
- colinbartlett 8mo ago
  Or any more than "full self driving" by 2017.
- ru552 8mo ago
  sure it does, Bezo's space company and Google are both planning the same Here's Sundar talking about doing it by 2027: https://www.businessinsider.com/google-project-suncatcher-sundar-pichai-data-centers-space-solar-2027-2025-11 https://www.businessinsider.com/google-project-suncatcher-su...
  - kevin_thibedeau 8mo ago
    It's all BS. There is no viable way to put industrial levels of compute into a space based platform that can work within the severe thermal, power, mass/volume, radiation, reliability, and economic demands. It is just stupid smoke blowing to separate idiot investors from their money. J-school grads don't have a clue what they're parroting about.

by spikels 8mo ago

kortex 8mo ago

lol WHAT? AI datacenters are bottlenecked by power, bandwidth, cooling, and maintenance. Ok sure maybe the Sun provides ample power, but if you are in LEO, you still have to deal with Earth's shadow, which means batteries, which means weight. Bandwidth you have via starlink, fine. But cooling in space is not trivial. And maintenance is out, unless they are also planning some kooky docking astromech satellite repair robot ecosystem. Maybe the Olney's lesions are starting to take their toll. Weirdest freaking timeline.

crote 8mo ago
The shadow thing can be solved by using a sun-synchronous orbit. See for example the TRACE solar observation satellite, which used a dawn/dusk orbit to maintain a constant view of the sun. Cooling, on the other hand? No way in hell.
- giancarlostoro 8mo ago
  The cooling is the bit where I'm lost on, but it will be interesting to see what they pull off. It feels like everyone forgets Elon hires very smart people to work on these problems, it's not all figured out by Elon Musk solely.
  - spikels 8mo ago
    Google, Blue Origin and a bunch of other companies have announced plans for data centers in space. I don't think cooling is the showstopper some assume.
    - giancarlostoro 8mo ago
      Good call out, and really interesting. SpaceX being the cheapest way to get things into space, it seems like SpaceX is about to become extremely lucrative.
    - deleted 8mo ago
      [deleted]
- clausz 8mo ago
  Every telco satellite can cool its electronics. However, more than a few kW is difficult. The ISS has around 100kW and is huge and in a shadow half the time.
- SJC_Hacker 8mo ago
  > Cooling, on the other hand? No way in hell. Space is actually really cold when the sun is blocked So, solar panels on side, GPUs on the other, maybe with a big ass radiator ...
  - kristjansson 8mo ago
    Space is empty, not cold.
    - SJC_Hacker 8mo ago
      > Space is empty, not cold. The "dark" side of the JWST has temperature of about 40 K (-233 C)
  - derrida 8mo ago
    How does a radiator work in a vacuum?

airza 8mo ago

it wasn't ignored on HN, there were many articles correctly noting that building data centers in space is a stupid stupid idea because cooling things there is infeasible

spikels 8mo ago
Google, Blue Origin and at least 5 other smaller companies have announced plans to build data centers in space. My understanding is the cooling issue is not the show stopper you assume.
- bhadass 8mo ago
  yup, bezos said "we will be able to beat the cost of terrestrial data centers in space in the next couple of decades". presumably this means they'll need huge ass radiators, so its all about bringing down launch costs since they'll need to increase mass.
  - deleted 8mo ago
    [deleted]
- gulfofamerica 8mo ago
  [dead]
woah 8mo ago
Was doing some back of the envelope math with chatGPT so take it with a grain of salt, but it sounds like in ideal conditions a radiator of 1m square could dissipate 300w. If this is the case, then it seems like you could approach a viable solution if putting stuff in space was free. What i can't figure out is how the cost of launch makes sense and what the benefit over building it on the ground could be
- deleted 8mo ago
  [deleted]
- spikels 8mo ago

kevin_thibedeau 8mo ago

> a vast network of AI servers in orbit That story makes no technical sense. There's no benefit to doing this. Nobody should believe it any more than boots on Mars by 2030.

colinbartlett 8mo ago
Or any more than "full self driving" by 2017.
ru552 8mo ago
sure it does, Bezo's space company and Google are both planning the same Here's Sundar talking about doing it by 2027: https://www.businessinsider.com/google-project-suncatcher-sundar-pichai-data-centers-space-solar-2027-2025-11 https://www.businessinsider.com/google-project-suncatcher-su...
- kevin_thibedeau 8mo ago
  It's all BS. There is no viable way to put industrial levels of compute into a space based platform that can work within the severe thermal, power, mass/volume, radiation, reliability, and economic demands. It is just stupid smoke blowing to separate idiot investors from their money. J-school grads don't have a clue what they're parroting about.