NVIDIA wants to send its massive artificial intelligence computers into outer space. The technology company realizes our planet simply lacks the resources to support the booming AI industry. Right now, companies spend trillions of dollars building massive data centers on Earth, but these facilities quickly run out of land, electricity, and water. To solve this problem, NVIDIA wants to treat outer space as the ultimate real estate market.
Running artificial intelligence requires an incredible amount of electricity. Data centers on Earth also consume millions of gallons of water just to keep the computer chips from melting. This massive resource drain causes real problems for local communities. People living near these massive server farms often see their personal power bills skyrocket, and the massive buildings often harm the surrounding plants and wildlife.
NVIDIA sees outer space as the perfect fix for these environmental and financial burdens. High above the Earth, computers have access to unlimited, constantly shining sunlight for power. Space also provides a freezing deep vacuum, which instantly solves the massive cooling problem. To make this happen, NVIDIA teamed up with five major aerospace companies: Starcloud, Planet Labs, Kepler Communications, Firefly Aerospace, and Sophia Space.
Last year, Starcloud revealed a massive proposal. The startup plans to build an orbiting artificial intelligence data center that generates exactly 5 gigawatts of power. The facility will span exactly 4 square kilometers and use giant solar panels to gather energy. Because the facility uses the deep vacuum of space to stay cold, NVIDIA predicts this orbiting design will result in exactly 10 times lower energy costs compared to building the same facility on Earth.
To survive the harsh environment of space, NVIDIA designed a brand new computer chip. The company calls this hardware the Space-1 Vera Rubin module. Engineers built this module specifically to operate in orbit. It features a tightly integrated design that combines the main processor and the graphics chip into one unit. The hardware runs completely on direct solar energy radiated from the sun.
The new space hardware packs an incredible punch. NVIDIA claims the Space-1 module delivers up to 25 times the computing power of its previous H100 chip. The hardware processes data in real time, allowing satellites to analyze images and run autonomous operations instantly while floating in orbit. Companies like Aetherflux, Axiom Space, and Planet Labs already plan to use this new hardware for their orbital vehicles.
NVIDIA does not stand alone in this race to the stars. Elon Musk wants a piece of the orbital computer market as well. His new company, SpaceXAI, recently partnered with the artificial intelligence firm Anthropic. Together, they plan to build their own multi-gigawatt data center in orbit. Musk believes putting computers in space completely removes the earthly bottlenecks of finding cheap land, generating enough power, and pumping enough cooling water.
Moving these massive operations to space solves many problems, but it creates new ones. While the sun provides endless power and space provides endless cooling, shipping the hardware remains incredibly difficult. Companies will have to rely on commercial rockets like the SpaceX Starship and Falcon Heavy to carry the heavy loads. Lifting hundreds of thousands of computer chips into orbit requires a massive amount of rocket fuel and perfectly timed rocket launches.
Despite the heavy shipping requirements, the space data center concept moves forward rapidly. What sounded like pure science fiction just a few years ago now represents a very real business plan. As the demand for artificial intelligence grows every single day, companies will do whatever it takes to keep their computers running, even if that means launching them into the stars.
