Thread

Google’s Project Suncatcher to put ML infrastructure in space

233 points · 553 comments · xnx

fwlr · 1790297624 · focus · HN ↗
Yes, the physics are worse, and yes, the economics are worse, but data centers in space have the crucial advantage that they are out of range of the molotov-throwing arm of Joe Public (recently unemployed).
1. thelastgallon · 1790304034 · focus · HN ↗
  Businesses run anywhere real money can be made. Middle east is the most volatile place. Yet, the businesses are perfectly okay building infrastructure to extract, refine and ship oil from there.
  If real money can be made, there is no need of datacenters in space. Offer some country some money and they'll let you build whatever you want. The whole idea is entirely unprofitable thats why they are making up things that won't work economically. Keep giving us money indefinitely, we'll keep spending, money can be made after a few decades of spending ... trust us.
  1. throwaway473825 · 1790304698 · focus · HN ↗
    Note that you didn't mention any such country, and for good reason - there is none.
    You'd need a dictatorship where people's voices don't matter, but then there's no right of ownership either.
    thelastgallon · 1790309710 · focus · HN ↗
    > Note that you didn't mention any such country, and for good reason - there is none.
    All flavors of Govt (authoritarian/democratic) are bending over backwards to build new DCs.
    In Ulanqab, China buildout of data centers 1000x size of Colossus: <a href="https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/2099319829589295197" rel="nofollow">https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/2099319829589295197
    India, a country which has neither power nor water or any measurable infrastructure is giving massive subsidies to hyperscalers to build AI DCs. They get free land (very very costly), nearly free energy, guaranteed supply of water and so on ...
    Examples of one authoritarian govt and one democratic govt. And there are 180+ other countries.
    sourcecodeplz · 1790314566 · focus · HN ↗
    just to add a few more reasons not mentioned on X why they chose this place:
    Cooling is a major factor. Ulanqab's average temperature is about 4.3°C, enabling free air cooling nearly 10 months a year and very low PUE around 1.1.
    Even more decisive is cheap, abundant power—largely wind and solar plus coal—at roughly half the price of eastern China. Add vast open land, dedicated low-latency fiber to Beijing (~2-5 ms),
    seanmcdirmid · 1790317009 · focus · HN ↗
    It actually abuts Hebei which puts it in striking distance of Beijing. I wonder about water though, it’s just grassland so there can’t be much to spare. It would be like building a data center in eastern Oregon.
    p_l · 1790326983 · focus · HN ↗
    The enormous water usage values are generally about powerplants providing the power, and even the better reports on that include water use by hydroelectric plants - which makes sense in context of the report, but that context nor sense isn't understood by journalists and hype-men quoting just "trillions of gallons a year, more than X cities"

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