TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY
For decades, the idea of a vast, celestial network of intelligence was the exclusive province of science fiction. Take Project Hail Mary, for example, where the plot is basically a high-stakes data swap between two species trying to outrun extinction.
Or there are Isaac Asimov’ s visions of stations in orbit equipped with massive solar panels to collect energy from the sun and beam it down to Earth. Here, the space station is managed by a superior robot called Cutie.
In these stories, space wasn’ t just a destination; it was the only place large enough to house the sheer scale of a maturing civilisation’ s data.
But with our terrestrial power grids struggling to power the insatiable AI boom and cooling a single data centre requiring millions of gallons of water, we have to ask: Have we finally outgrown the Earth? Can the next generation of AI truly thrive while tethered to a planet with finite resources and a sun that disappears for twelve hours a day?
The ambition of moving the world’ s most demanding digital infrastructure beyond the confines of Earth is rapidly accelerating. Jeff Bezos’ space technology company Blue Origin has signalled that the answer to our planetary bottlenecks lies in the stars, unveiling plans for an orbital data centre network.
In a move that reframes the current space race as a battle for compute rather than just connectivity,
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