{"id":301793,"date":"2026-02-25T18:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T18:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/301793\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T18:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T18:00:08","slug":"peter-griffin-we-should-all-hope-elon-musks-wacky-plan-for-data-centres-in-space-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/301793\/","title":{"rendered":"Peter Griffin: We should all hope Elon Musk\u2019s wacky plan for data centres in space works"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PeterPeter Griffin<\/a><\/p>\n

Technology writer\u00b7New Zealand Listener\u00b7<\/p>\n

25 Feb, 2026 05:00 PM3 mins to read<\/p>\n

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Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans to launch orbital data centres powered by sunlight and linked back to Earth via Starlink\u2019s satellite network. Photos \/ Getty Images. Illustration \/ NZ Listener<\/p>\n

It was only a matter of time before Elon Musk pointed one of his rockets at the cloud. The billionaire who launched a Tesla roadster into orbit and blanketed the planet in Starlink broadband coverage now wants to put data centres in space.<\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s classic Musk \u2013 grandiose, technically challenging,
\n quite possibly ketamine-fuelled. He\u2019s betting big that running artificial intelligence tasks in space will pay off handsomely for his soon-to-be-merged companies xAI and SpaceX.\n <\/p>\n

Even if you loathe the man, you should be quietly cheering him on. If AI continues to grow the way it has over the past two years, we will increasingly see tech giants competing with communities for electricity. AI data centres are turning out to be gluttons. Every prompt you type into ChatGPT, every image conjured by Midjourney, every bad song you ask Suno to create \u2013 all flow through banks of graphics-processing units (GPUs) that slurp electricity and water like digital vampires.<\/p>\n

The International Energy Agency estimates global data centre power consumption could account for 3-4.4% of global electricity by 2030. That sounds modest, but data centre energy use is growing four times faster than average power use. <\/p>\n

This is happening at a time when we need more electricity for vehicles, and factories are moving away from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

New Zealand is on the cusp of its own data-centre boom, thanks to hyperscalers like AWS (Amazon Web Services) and Microsoft. The companies love our hydro power, fresh air and low geopolitical risk. When the choice comes down to powering an AI model or heating New Zealand homes, the market will prioritise those willing to pay the most.<\/p>\n

This is where Musk\u2019s latest idea has merit. SpaceX plans to launch orbital data centres powered by sunlight and linked back to Earth via Starlink\u2019s satellite network. Musk can tap into free solar energy, unlimited cooling via the frigid darkness of space, with no Nimbys complaining about server farms.<\/p>\n

In theory, it could be the ultimate clean-energy solution. Space-based solar panels generate consistent power without clouds or nightfall cutting production. Waste heat can be radiated into the void. And latency, the bane of internet engineers, could be surprisingly low thanks to Starlink\u2019s growing constellation of low Earth orbit satellites.<\/p>\n

But as with most Musk ventures, between the spark of inspiration and reality lies a canyon of engineering, costs and bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

First, there\u2019s the economics. Lifting even one data centre\u2019s worth of hardware will be expensive. SpaceX has reusable rockets, but launch costs are measured in tens of millions, which is why Musk told xAI staff he plans to build a giant slingshot to send data centre satellites into space \u2013 yes, you read that right. Then there\u2019s maintenance. You can\u2019t exactly send an IT guy up in a Falcon 9 every time a cooling pump fails or a cosmic ray fries a GPU.<\/p>\n

Heat dissipation is tricky in space, which is a vacuum. You can\u2019t just pipe out hot air \u2013 you need massive radiators to bleed energy away as infrared light. Radiation shielding and orbital debris add to the challenge.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the question of regulation. Data sovereignty laws don\u2019t deal with the scenario where your personal data or government records are in orbit. Who has jurisdiction if a data centre explodes or is hacked by a malicious satellite?<\/p>\n

Still, Musk turned the electric car industry on its head and built the world\u2019s largest satellite internet network. His space data centre plan sounds insane. But compared with the alternative, an AI-powered world straining every power line and hydrodam we\u2019ve got, it makes sense. <\/p>\n

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Copy LinkEmailFacebookTwitter\/XLinkedInReddit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peter Griffin Technology writer\u00b7New Zealand Listener\u00b7 25 Feb, 2026 05:00 PM3 mins to read Subscribe to listenAccess to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[5263,9218,13475,165608,3896,34518,6162,59518,3105,17448,2082,64952,2883,78,296,1743,3302,17449,17444,111,139,69,2847,35923,5413,2170,19794,31842,165607,5146,147,3271,392,1504,5536,2044,165606,14638,3270,15146],"class_list":{"0":"post-301793","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-all","9":"tag-before","10":"tag-billionaire","11":"tag-blanketed","12":"tag-broadband","13":"tag-centres","14":"tag-cloud","15":"tag-coverage","16":"tag-data","17":"tag-elon","18":"tag-for","19":"tag-griffin","20":"tag-hope","21":"tag-in","22":"tag-into","23":"tag-launched","24":"tag-matter","25":"tag-musk","26":"tag-musks","27":"tag-new-zealand","28":"tag-newzealand","29":"tag-nz","30":"tag-only","31":"tag-orbit","32":"tag-peter","33":"tag-plan","34":"tag-planet","35":"tag-pointed","36":"tag-roadster","37":"tag-rockets","38":"tag-science","39":"tag-should","40":"tag-space","41":"tag-starlink","42":"tag-tesla","43":"tag-time","44":"tag-wacky","45":"tag-wants","46":"tag-we","47":"tag-works"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}