- Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins says he’s already exploring how to send data centers to space
- OpenAI’s Sam Altman sees it as a “pipe dream,” Elon Musk is optimistic
- Space-bound data centers would tackle a lot of the current issues
Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins has revealed his company execs are already discussing plans to put data centers in space.
Robbins clearly backs the idea, noting that space could remove some of Earth’s key constraints like power, cooling and land availability. Abundant solar energy and fewer community objections are among the highlights (though a different type of objection would likely occur).
And Robbins isn’t the only person with influence over data centers who believes this: “Sam Altman is one who says, ‘I don’t think they should be in their backyards’,” he told Nilay Patel of The Verge.
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Cisco is actively exploring putting data centers in space
Although Altman may be sceptical of locating data centers in space, SpaceX’s Elon Musk is a major supporter. When asked whether he would believe Altman, who claims space-bound data centers are a “pipe dream,” or Elon Musk, Robbins stated: “I wouldn’t bet against Elon.”
These campuses are generally seen as noisy, energy-intensive operations that are especially unpopular locally. Hyperscalers face increasing public opposition and concerns over environmental impacts, however soaring usage is a conflicting trend that’s requiring ongoing buildouts.
However, Cisco is still figuring out some of the technical challenges relating to temperature, atmospheric conditions and launch logistics.
There’s also a growing demand for data sovereignty, and it’s unclear at best how space-located data centers would play into this with infrastructure design shifting from global systems to localized deployments.
As for the next steps, there are clearly a lot of them. “We’re in the early stages of just making sure the atmospheric issues, the temperatures, all of those things are taken into consideration,” the CEO stated, noting “we don’t even know everything we need to do yet.”
“Absolutely,” Robbins concluded when asked whether we should put data centers in space.
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