- Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins says he’s already exploring how to send data centers to space
- OpenAI’s Sam Altman sees it as a “chimera”, Elon Musk is optimistic
- Space data centers would address many of today’s problems
Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins has revealed that his company executives are already discussing plans to put data centers in space.
Robbins clearly supports the idea, noting that space could eliminate some of Earth’s key limitations, such as energy, cooling, and land availability. Among the highlights are abundant solar power and fewer community objections (although a different type of objection would likely occur).
And Robbins isn’t the only data center influencer who believes this: “Sam Altman is one of those who says, ‘I don’t think they should be in your backyards,'” he told Nilay Patel of The edge.
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Cisco is actively exploring putting data centers in space
While Altman may be skeptical of locating data centers in space, SpaceX’s Elon Musk is a big supporter. Asked whether he would believe Altman, who claims space data centers are a “pipe dream,” or Elon Musk, Robbins said, “I wouldn’t bet against Elon.”
These campuses are generally considered noisy, energy-intensive operations that are especially unpopular locally. Hyperscalers face growing public opposition and concerns about environmental impacts; However, skyrocketing usage is a conflicting trend that requires continued developments.
However, Cisco is still resolving some of the technical challenges related to temperature, atmospheric conditions, and launch logistics.
There is also a growing demand for data sovereignty and it is at best unclear how data centers located in space would play a role in this with infrastructure design shifting from global systems to localized deployments.
As for next steps, there are clearly many. “We’re in the early stages of making sure that atmospheric issues and temperatures and all those things are taken into account,” the CEO said, noting that “we don’t even know everything we have to do yet.”
“Absolutely,” Robbins concluded when asked if we should put data centers in space.
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