Faced with earthly opposition, tech leaders want to put data centers in orbit

Data centers in space, orbiting every corner of our globe. A rising constellation of venture capitalists and tech entrepreneurs say this is the future. Faced with mounting opposition from Americans – the vast majority of whom say they don’t want a data center in their backyard – tech leaders are preparing to launch and build them very far away.“It’s inevitable,” says Eric Truitt, chief executive and co-founder of the startup Mantis Space. The company is working to build a space-based power grid using military-grade lasers. Within five years, Mr. Truitt says, data centers will “orbit over every part of the Earth.”Critics say space-based data centers could permanently brighten the night sky, producing unknown impacts on plant, animal, and human life. A dramatic rise in the number of satellites could also “interfere with astronomical research,” heighten the chance of collisions and increase the amount of space debris, according to the Government Accountability Office. Decommissioned data center parts could crash to Earth if they do not entirely burn up in the atmosphere, the GAO added. Why We Wrote This Americans don’t want data centers in their backyard. So, major U.S. tech companies are moving to build them in space. Investors and executives backing the idea don’t discount these possibilities. And they are quick to mention additional risks.Speaking at an industry forum sponsored by TDK Ventures last week in San Francisco, George Hoyem, a former executive vice president of the U.S. intelligence community’s venture firm, In-Q-Tel, raised the possibility of “a battle in space” between the United States and China.But technology leaders in attendance also express optimism they could innovate their way out of these problems. For example, Rob Meyerson, former president of the Jeff Bezos-founded rocket company Blue Origin, told the industry forum he thought humans could eventually “source materials like aluminum, iron and silicon in space,” and then use those same materials to build data centers above the atmosphere. Donna Blankinship/AP/File Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, left, stands with former Blue Origin president Rob Meyerson in front of a copper exhaust nozzle to be used on a spaceship engine, on the company's research and production floor, in Kent, Washington, March 8, 2016. Mr. Meyerson’s current venture is called Interlune. In its own words, the company aspires “to lead the world in sustainable, responsible harvesting of natural resources from space to benefit humanity.”Space-based data centers would be powered by solar energy, which is plentiful in orbit. The consulting firm McKinsey & Co. has even declared space a “$1.8 trillion opportunity for global economic growth.”The most powerful advocate for data centers in space is the world’s richest person, Elon Musk. In January, Mr. Musk’s SpaceX petitioned the Federal Communications Commission for permission to launch a data center with “up to one million satellites.”Mr. Musk enjoys a close relationship with the Trump administration. The current chair of the FCC, Brendan Carr, attended SpaceX launches before being appointed to the position by President Donald Trump. Under Mr. Carr’s leadership, the FCC has eased regulations in ways that benefit SpaceX, and has called for an era of “U.S. space dominance.”When the president announced he would pick Mr. Carr for FCC chair, Mr. Musk said on his social media platform X, “Great choice.”NASA administrator Jared Isaacman, the billionaire founder of a payment processing company, is likewise close to Mr. Musk. Before joining the Trump administration, Mr. Isaacman flew on two SpaceX missions and his company does business with Mr. Musk’s. He has been similarly bullish on data centers in space.“Let’s take the data centers that no one likes in your backyard – it seems like there’s a lot of consensus on that – and put them into space where they won’t bother anyone’,” Mr. Isaacman told the New York Post’s podcast in August.Environmental groups argue that the rush to put data centers in space could have far-reaching consequences, the extent of which are not fully understood. In March, a coalition of organizations, including Earthjustice and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, asked the FCC to perform a full environmental review on SpaceX’s proposal to launch a data center with up to 1 million satellites. Protesters hold signs in opposition of the Project Jupiter data center during a demonstration in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Aug. 21, 2026. The coalition called on the FCC to assess a range of potential impacts, including an assessment of the emission of huge amounts of artificial light at night on human, plant, and animal health, potential changes to stratospheric temperature, ozone coverage, and geomagnetic signals that migratory birds rely on.The FCC did not respond to the Monitor’s requests for comment.SpaceX did not provide direct answers to the environmental concerns in its response to the FCC. Instead, senior satellite policy manager Cecilia Tenge-Rietberg wrote that the company planned to use a “phased deployment approach for this system to monitor actual atmospheric effects.” SpaceX also acknowledged it had yet to develop “advanced brightness mitigation techniques” to minimize the visual impact, Ms. Tenge-Rietberg said.David Anderson, chief product officer of Ramon.Space, which builds space-resilient computer processors, says space-borne data centers are the only way to satisfy the growing demand for artificial intelligence products.“Think about self-driving cars,” he says. Right now, they are comparatively small in number and primarily interact with human drivers, he adds. But imagine a world where self-driving cars dominate the roadways. Each vehicle would be using data constantly as it used its satellite internet connection to process its interaction with the other self-driving cars on the street.Processing that much data, he says, will require data centers in space.