Big tech's next move is to put data centers in space. Can it work?

Major technology companies are exploring placing data centers in space to take advantage of orbital environments where power generation is abundant. The concept exploits the sun's continuous energy availability in orbit, eliminating the terrestrial power grid constraints that make ground-based data centers expensive to operate and cool. However, the proposal faces substantial hurdles: launching equipment to space, maintaining infrastructure in the harsh orbital environment, and managing data transmission back to Earth all carry prohibitive costs that currently outweigh the power savings. The feasibility depends on whether companies can develop reusable launch systems and in-space construction methods that dramatically reduce deployment expenses. Success could reshape the data infrastructure industry by moving computational workloads to space, though skeptics argue the engineering and economic challenges remain formidable.