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Now Tech Moguls Want to Build Data Centers in Outer Space by Tim Higgins

William Attardi on November 16, 2025

Energy constraints in the artificial-intelligence race are causing tech companies to think out of this world. The world’s richest men are earnestly talking about traveling to outer space to build gigantic data centers to run artificial-intelligence models among the stars. They argue such missions make the most sense for powering energy-hungry operations. Such talk comes as Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket companies are working to make space travel cheaper and routine. It isn’t clear what’s closer to being real: Moon bases or superintelligent AI?  The argument essentially boils down to the belief that AI’s needs are eventually going to grow so great that we need to move to outer space. There the sun’s power can be more efficiently harvested. To be clear, the current economics of space-based data centers don’t make sense. But they could in the future, perhaps as soon as a decade or so from now. Now Tech Moguls Want to Build Data Centers in Outer Space – WSJ

RESEARCH: Tracking the Sun by Berkeley Lab

William Attardi on November 26, 2024

Berkeley Lab’s annual Tracking the Sun report describes trends among grid-connected, distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) and paired PV+storage systems in the United States. For the purpose of this report, distributed solar includes residential systems, roof-mounted non-residential systems, and ground-mounted systems up to 5 MW-AC.  Ground-mounted systems larger than 5 MW-AC are covered in Berkeley Lab’s companion annual report, Utility-Scale Solar.  The latest edition of the report is based on 3.7 million systems installed through year-end 2023, representing roughly 80% of systems installed to date. Tracking the Sun | Energy Markets & Policy (lbl.gov)

The Genesis of the U.S. Space Force – On December 20, 2019, President Donald Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020, officially creating the United States Space Force, a new and independent branch of the U.S. military. The establishment of the Space Force marked a historic shift in how the U.S. views and manages its military operations in space, reflecting the growing importance of space as both a domain of strategic competition and national security. The Space Force is tasked with ensuring the U.S. maintains its superiority in space, focusing on both the defense of space assets and the development of offensive capabilities. Its mission includes:

  1. Space Operations: Overseeing space-based systems, such as satellites, that provide essential services to the U.S. military, including communication, reconnaissance, and missile defense.
  2. Space Security: Protecting U.S. space infrastructure from threats, including anti-satellite weapons, cyberattacks, and other potential forms of disruption by adversarial nations.
  3. Space Research and Development: Developing and deploying cutting-edge space technologies, including space-based defense systems, that ensure the U.S. maintains an edge in space exploration and military operations.
  4. Supporting National Defense: Integrating space capabilities into broader national defense strategies, ensuring that U.S. forces can operate effectively in space as part of a multi-domain approach to warfare.

The Space Force is designed to streamline and strengthen the U.S. military’s space operations, which were previously under the purview of the U.S. Air Force. By separating space operations into a distinct branch, the government hoped to increase focus on space as a critical area of national defense and enhance the U.S. military’s ability to respond to emerging threats. Source: Day in History