Amazon AWS CEO: Space data centers won't be viable for the next 10 to 20 years

Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon's cloud unit AWS, said on a podcast that space data centers are unlikely to make sense in the next 10 to 20 years, both in cost and operation. The idea is to send computers into orbit and run AI on solar power.

Garman sees many hurdles: large-scale deployment may need at least one launch a day; space is almost a vacuum, so heat can only escape through radiators, which becomes a big engineering problem at hundreds of megawatts; fixing devices in orbit is much harder, and space radiation needs extra protection.

Musk disagrees, betting on SpaceX's Starship to cut launch costs. He says an aluminum radiator facing away from the sun can release about 1,300 watts of heat per square meter.

Garman also noted that AWS is adding one GPU every 14 seconds, yet demand still outpaces supply, and computing power will stay tight for the next two years.