Bezos and Musk are competing to bring data centers into space

According to the Wall Street Journal, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos are racing to bring the multi-trillion dollar data center craze into orbit. According to people familiar with the matter, Bezos' Blue Origin has a team that has spent more than a year working on the technology needed for an orbital artificial intelligence data center. Meanwhile, Musk's SpaceX plans to use an upgraded version of its Starlink satellite to carry the payload of artificial intelligence computing and use the technology as part of a stock sale, a move that could value the company at $800 billion, according to people involved in the discussions. Deploying satellites with powerful artificial intelligence computing capabilities would face daunting engineering challenges and raise serious questions about the cost of putting large numbers of such devices into orbit. Still, the idea has appealed to many leaders in artificial intelligence and aerospace technology.