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xnx a day ago

François Chollet https://x.com/fchollet/status/1999982683708150014 :

"Datacenters in space" make for a catchy narrative and an interesting demo, but the math simply doesn't work.

When considering factors like launch cost, maintenance complexity, and the cost of high-bandwidth communications (latency included), there is no realistic set of economic and engineering assumptions under which orbiting datacenters become cost-competitive with simply building conventional nuclear-powered (or renewable energy-powered) datacenters on the ground.

In fact we're off by 50-100x. Dramatic launch cost reductions still won't make it work. And of course if you invest a lot in specific lines of tech to make it work you then have to consider that the same can also be invested in better ground-based nuclear, bringing the cost of power down for everyone.

wmf a day ago | parent [-]

So the guy who shows his work says 3.4x and the guy who doesn't says 50-100x.

enderfusion 21 hours ago | parent [-]

OP here.

man who quotes big number - often made a fool