Communities living near such centers report alarming environmental effects. Residents near Meta’s Georgia facility, for instance, told The New York Times they were “scared to drink their own water” due to sediment buildup, a result of excessive water used to cool servers. Others complained of increased pollution, high electricity prices, and declining air quality.
The irony is stark: the technology driving the future may also be eroding the habitability of the present.
Bezos’ Bold Vision: “Data Centers in Space”
Amid this growing crisis, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has proposed a startling — and potentially transformative — solution. Speaking at Italian Tech Week in Turin, as reported by The New York Post, Bezos predicted that the next generation of AI data centers could be built not on Earth, but in space.
“These giant training clusters will be better built in space because we have solar power there 24/7,” Bezos said. “There are no clouds and no rain, no weather. We will be able to beat the cost of terrestrial data centers in space in the next couple of decades.”
According to Bezos, within 10 to 20 years, gigawatt-scale facilities orbiting Earth could provide clean, uninterrupted power to AI systems. Space-based centers would rely on abundant solar energy, eliminating dependence on terrestrial grids and mitigating environmental damage.
Why Space Makes ‘Some’ Sense
The logic behind Bezos’ vision rests on physics and sustainability. Outside the Earth’s atmosphere, solar energy is continuous and unfiltered — a perfect power source for energy-hungry AI models. Moreover, relocating data centers to orbit could dramatically reduce the strain on Earth’s ecosystems. Bezos’ space company, Blue Origin, has already made significant strides in aerospace technology, including satellite deployment and reusable rockets. His vision extends that expertise to solving one of the AI era’s most pressing problems: its unsustainable energy footprint.
The Dark Side of AI’s Infrastructure
While Bezos’ proposal sounds futuristic, it emerges against an increasingly grim backdrop. In states like Georgia and Tennessee, residents living near expanding AI infrastructure have reported health and environmental issues. Beverly Morris, a homeowner near Meta’s data center, told The New York Times that sediment from industrial water use left her house with only one functional bathroom.
Across the United States, similar stories are surfacing. xAI’s Memphis supercomputer project has drawn public outrage from residents who claim pollution has made it difficult to breathe. Scientists, too, warn that the industry’s growing water and power consumption could amplify climate risks.
Bezos’ plan offers hope for an AI-powered future that doesn’t come at Earth’s expense. Yet, the challenges of constructing, maintaining, and servicing orbital data centers are enormous. The costs would be astronomical, and ensuring safe, stable connectivity from space remains a technological frontier yet to be fully explored.
