Jeff Bezos Predicts Gigawatt Data Centers in Space Within 20 Years
Jeff Bezos predicts gigawatt data centers in space in the next 20 years. The Amazon founder says continuous solar energy and natural cooling could create cheaper alternatives to terrestrial centers.
Bezos’ vision: data centers leave the earth
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has made a bold prediction for the future of data processing: Gigawatt data centers will be built in space within ten to 20 years. This would be a revolution for IT infrastructure, as such orbital facilities could outperform their earth-based counterparts in terms of efficiency and cost structure.
At the Italian Tech Week in Turin, Bezos explained the advantages of space-based infrastructure: In space, solar energy is available around the clock, without interruptions due to clouds, rain or other weather phenomena. The continuous energy supply without atmospheric disturbances could reduce operating costs below those of terrestrial data centers in the long term. How Reuters Reportedly, Bezos commented on this during a public conversation with Ferrari and Stellantis Chairman John Elkann.
Growing hunger for energy
The rapid rise of artificial intelligence and cloud technologies poses enormous challenges for existing computing infrastructures. According to the International Energy Agency, data center electricity demand is expected to double to 945 terawatt hours annually by 2030. This corresponds to slightly more than Japan’s entire electricity consumption, which was 915 terawatt hours in 2024.
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Companies are therefore already looking for alternative locations – from Microsoft’s underwater facilities to data centers in Arctic regions. Bezos sees space as a natural continuation of a development that has already begun with weather and communications satellites. Mind you, the idea is not completely new: scientists were already discussing solar power plants in space in the 1970s.
Technical hurdles are huge
However, practical implementation poses massive challenges. A gigawatt data center would require solar panel areas of up to 3.3 million square meters – corresponding to a square with a side of 1.8 kilometers. The photovoltaic modules alone would weigh over 11,000 tons.
Transporting it into space would cost between $13.7 billion and $25 billion using current rocket technology and require over 150 Falcon Heavy launches. In addition, millions of square meters of cooling elements would have to radiate the resulting waste heat into space. Maintenance and updates of the sensitive hardware in orbit represent further unresolved problems. Radiation exposure could also drastically shorten the lifespan of the components.
Experts, therefore, doubt whether space data centers will be economically viable. The costs for launches would have to fall by a factor of 100 in order to become competitive. The first companies are already working on space-based computing solutions. Starcloud and Sophia Space are developing corresponding concepts, while Axiom Space is planning the first orbital data center modules. Bezos’ own space company Blue Origin could also play a role in the implementation.
