The company with the access to cheap and plentiful energy and the real estate to build data centers will be Saudi Arabia in your analogy.

This is why SpaceX could be a dark horse in this race. Putting compute in space is expensive but so is building a data center in the US.

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bpye 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> Putting compute in space is expensive but so is building a data center in the US.

You know what's also really hard in a vacuum? Dissipating heat.

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JumpCrisscross 8 hours ago | parent [-]

> You know what's also really hard in a vacuum? Dissipating heat

Correct. The economics of space-based DCs comes down to permitting delays versus radiator mass.

At ISS-weight radiators (12 to 15 W/kg (EDIT: kg/kW)), you need almost decade-long delays on the ground (or 10+ percent interest rates) to make lifting worthwhile. Get down to current state-of-the-art in the 5 to 10 W/kg (EDIT: kg/kW) range, however, and you only need permiting delays of 2 to 3 years.

If there is a game-changing start-up waiting to be built, it's in someone commercialising a better vacuum-rated radiator.

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ambicapter 8 hours ago | parent [-]

Would you want more wattage per kg for a better radiator?

	▲	7 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		[deleted]
	▲	JumpCrisscross 7 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Yes! Thank you–fixed.

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redanddead 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Putting it centrally globally makes a lot of sense, just like connecting airports

Saudi will host the biggest data centers in the world