SoftBank rejects orbital data centers, backs Earth-based AI buildout
What's new: Masayoshi Son argued power is only a small share of data center costs, making launch, maintenance and latency bigger hurdles in space.
SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son pushed back on the idea of putting data centers in orbit, arguing the AI race will be decided by computing capacity built on Earth, not in space. Speaking at an annual shareholder meeting for SoftBank's mobile unit on Tuesday, Son said orbital facilities might cut power bills, but electricity is only a small part of overall operating costs compared with chips and other hardware. He said launching equipment, maintaining systems in orbit and communication delays would outweigh any savings. Son said SoftBank will concentrate on building large-scale terrestrial data center capacity as AI demand surges. The company has committed about $65 billion to OpenAI and also plans broader investments in data centers and related infrastructure worldwide.