Bernstein report examines feasibility of orbiting data centers as solution to AI compute power and energy constraints.
Space offers abundant solar power and avoids terrestrial NIMBY and regulatory hurdles, but launch costs remain prohibitive.
Main technical obstacle is thermal management; radiation cooling in vacuum is far less efficient than Earth’s liquid or airflow systems.
Viability hinges on breakthroughs in radiative cooling and miniaturized power systems to offset high upfront launch and hardware expenses.