Amazon has greater than 900 information facilities unfold throughout the planet. And in the event you ask Matt Garman, the CEO of Amazon Internet Companies, that’s precisely the place they’ll keep for the foreseeable future.
Talking at a tech convention in San Francisco on Tuesday, Garman threw some chilly water on the notion of space-based information facilities, which have been touted by Elon Musk and others as the way forward for AI.
Whereas placing AI information facilities in area has apparent advantages, together with the power to harness vitality instantly from the solar and the power to chill the heat-generating tools within the chilly ambiance of area, Garman mentioned there are additionally some massive obstacles to placing information facilities in area or on different planets. Chief amongst them is the price of transporting tools.
“I don’t know in the event you’ve seen a rack of servers recently: They’re heavy,” Garman mentioned in an interview on the Cisco AI Summit in reply to a query concerning the viability of space-based information facilities. “And final I checked, humanity has but to construct a everlasting construction in area. So … possibly.”
The feedback come at some point after Musk introduced the merger of SpaceX, his rocket firm, together with his AI firm, xAI, in a deal that reportedly values the mixed firms at a staggering $1.25 billion.
“The capabilities we unlock by making space-based information facilities a actuality will fund and allow self-growing bases on the Moon, a whole civilization on Mars, and finally growth to the Universe,” Musk wrote in a weblog submit Monday asserting the deal.
The fashionable information facilities that energy AI companies, together with chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and xAI’s Grok, are huge behemoths that may span hundreds of thousands of sq. toes and are filled with a lot {hardware} that they should be constructed on prime of strengthened concrete slabs.
Musk’s SpaceX has a profitable observe document of launching 1000’s of its internet-beaming Starlink satellites into orbit on its Falcon rockets, and Musk has floated bold plans to make use of its Starship rocket to launch as many as 1 million satellites into area—an quantity that’s far better than the full variety of objects launched into area in historical past. The blizzard of Starlink launches would result in enhancements in SpaceX’s rockets that may make area primarily based information facilities a actuality, Musk wrote on Monday, although he didn’t present a timeline for when he anticipated it to occur.
Amazon has plans to create a constellation of web beaming satellites, dubbed Leo, to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink. The corporate has earmarked $10 billion for the mission, in response to CNBC, however progress has been sluggish, with Amazon lately asking the U.S. FCC to increase the timeline to launch 1,600 Leo satellites.
Garman cited Musk’s 1-million-satellite plan throughout the Tuesday discuss, and acknowledged that enhancements in gas and different facets will make transportation into area cheaper. However for now, he burdened, the prices are a significant bottleneck.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
