Jeff Bezos: In 10-20 years, giant data centers will be built in orbit.

Jeff Bezos stated that in the next 10-20 years, there may be objects in Earth orbit gigawatt-scale data centers, which will revolutionize the computing industry. Speaking at Italian Tech Week, the founder of Amazon and Blue Origin pointed out the advantages of space: continuous solar power without clouds and night, as well as extremely low temperatures, making it easier cooling systems.

According to Bezos, the demand for AI and cloud technologies has already exceeded the limits of what's possible on Earth, forcing the search for unconventional solutions. Ideas include data centers on ships, underwater, or in Arctic regions. But space, he says, offers unique advantages for hosting next-generation infrastructure.

However, from a technical point of view, such projects are still commercially impossibleIt takes about 1 gigawatt to generate 3 million m² of solar panels, whose mass can exceed 10 tons. Launching such a payload into low orbit alone would require over 150 heavy rocket launches and cost between $17 and $25 billion. Furthermore, the mass of servers, control systems, and especially heat sinks would significantly increase the costs.

For every watt of energy produced, almost as much heat is required million square meters of radiators and additional tens of billions of dollars. Furthermore, orbital data centers must be highly reliable and maintainable—a challenge that currently lacks an effective solution.