# AI data centres (datacenters) in space!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-data-centres-datacenters-in-space/1031098>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 22, 2026, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-data-centres-datacenters-in-space/1031098 "2026-06-22T12:16:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 66

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**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2026, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-data-centres-datacenters-in-space/1031098/66 "2026-06-26T12:55:21Z")

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We had a similar thread in November when Google announced a moonshot project to explore datacenters in orbit:

> [@A...i..............in...space!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-i-in-space/1024615):
>
> Seems to me that putting your datacenter in orbit might just possibly be the worst place for it, but what do I know.

Here is the announcement:

> **[Exploring a space-based, scalable AI infrastructure system design](https://research.google/blog/exploring-a-space-based-scalable-ai-infrastructure-system-design/)**

Which also has a link to their whitepaper that outlines the challenges (radiation, heat, cost, networking, etc.). It includes cost projections as well.

Google’s strategy here is to use a single project or goal to further development in multiple areas. Even if the goal ends up failing, the hope is their is collateral innovation.

In any case, datacenters in inaccessible places like space or the ocean will be running commodity HW for common use-cases. It could be tasked with batch processing corporate data overnight, for example. The cutting edge stuff would stay local-ish.

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