Altman Says Musk’s Thought to Put Knowledge Facilities in Area Is ‘Ridiculous’

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman famously do not agree on a lot.

The most recent level of competition: knowledge facilities in house. Musk has made it a precedence. Altman thinks it is a fantasy, at the very least for now.

“I truthfully assume the concept with the present panorama of placing knowledge facilities in house is ridiculous,” Altman mentioned throughout a reside interview with native media in New Delhi on Friday, inflicting viewers members to snigger.

Altman mentioned that orbital knowledge facilities might “make sense sometime,” however components like launch prices and the problem of repairing a pc chip in house stay overwhelming obstacles.

“We aren’t there but,” Altman added. “There’ll come a time. Area is nice for lots of issues. Orbital knowledge facilities are usually not one thing that is going to matter at scale this decade.”

Musk would virtually actually disagree.

Whereas many Large Tech and AI corporations are spending billions on knowledge heart building on Earth, Musk’s eyes are on the celebs, per typical. Orbital knowledge facilities are his newest ambition, as he talked about in an all-hands xAI assembly in December.

In February, SpaceX mentioned its purpose is to launch a “constellation of one million satellites that function as orbital knowledge facilities.” The corporate has already begun hiring engineers to make that occur.

Throughout an all-hands assembly with xAI workers this month, Musk mentioned SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI will enable them to deploy the orbital knowledge facilities sooner.

Regardless of Altman’s skepticism, different tech leaders are additionally racing to position knowledge facilities in house. Google’s Undertaking Suncatcher, unveiled in November 2025, goals to just do that. Google CEO Sundar Pichai informed Fox Information Sunday the corporate might begin inserting knowledge facilities — powered by the solar — in house as early as 2027.

Tech and AI corporations depend on knowledge facilities to energy their merchandise, like massive language fashions and chatbots. These knowledge facilities, nonetheless, can deplete water sources, pressure energy grids, enhance air pollution, and reduce the general high quality of life.

An investigation by Enterprise Insider printed final 12 months discovered that over 1,200 knowledge facilities had been accredited for building throughout the US by the top of 2024, practically 4 occasions the quantity from 2010.

Now, proposed knowledge heart campuses in Texas, Oklahoma, and elsewhere are more and more dealing with stiff resistance from native communities.