I suspect that this orbital data centers isn't entirely about dollars (No doubt dollars are important).

I suspect it is about the regulatory environment. The regulatory environment on data centers is moving quickly. Data centers used to be considered a small portion of the economy and thus benign and not worth extorting/controlling. This seems to be changing, rapidly.

Given that data centers only exchange information with their consumers they are a natural candidate for using orbit as a way to escape regulators.

Further, people are likely betting that regulators will take considerable time to adjust since space is multinational.

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GMoromisato a day ago | parent | next [-]

True, but businesses don't care about regulations except where it costs them money. Also, remember that time is money, so any regulatory delays cost real money to a business.

My point is that you can actually reduce it all to dollars. And I believe that the cost of orbital data centers will come down due to technological advances, while the cost of regulation will only go up, because of local and global opposition.

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HardCodedBias a day ago | parent [-]

"My point is that you can actually reduce it all to dollars."

I'm not sure. A couple of points:

1) The regulatory landscape is enormous. It is unknown from which angle regulators will "slow you down."

2) As I mentioned the regulatory frameworks in this area are evolving very quickly. It is unknown what the regulations will be in 1, 2, 5 years and how that will impact your business.

	▲	mmooss a day ago \| parent [-]
		> The regulatory landscape is enormous. It is unknown from which angle regulators will "slow you down." That's not true for people experienced in the particular industry. Others can find a lawyer that will give them a good picture.

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ok_dad a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Interestingly, the humans running the "unregulated space datacenter" are still on Earth, subject to Earth's laws.

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markus_zhang a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think it is also about security. It is impossible for ordinary people to break into such a data center.

It’s a bit like the cyberpunk future when the ultra riches live in moon bases or undersea bases and ordinary people fight for resources in a ruined earth.

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klysm a day ago | parent | prev [-]

How on earth does that justify the astronomic expense difference?

	▲	guywithahat a day ago \| parent [-]
		Well the argument some of these companies are making is that it would be cheaper over 10 years (some things like power can be cheaper in space, and you can get it from solar nearly 24h a day). It seems likely to me (as it does many other people) that it won't be cheaper, but if it's the same price or mildly more expensive there might be a regulatory incentive to train a ML model in space instead of a place like the EU