OpenAI space war breaks out? Sam Altman secretly plans to invest in rocket company Stoke Space, aiming at Elon Musk's SpaceX

The Wall Street Journal has revealed that Sam Altman held talks with rocket startup Stoke Space this summer to discuss taking a stake in the company. Although negotiations are currently on hold, OpenAI’s massive computing power and energy needs remain a significant challenge.

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Amid the ongoing AI technology arms race, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is turning his attention to space. According to a report by The Wall Street Journal today (the 4th), Altman held talks with rocket startup Stoke Space this summer regarding controlling interest, aiming to enhance rocket launch capabilities and deploy data centers in orbit.

A widely discussed idea recently is to use the low temperatures of space to reduce cooling costs and use abundant solar energy to power AI’s massive computations. Stoke Space is therefore directly challenging the commercial landscape of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Altman has long been interested in the possibility of building data centers in space. He believes that the infinite demand for computing resources by AI systems will ultimately require so much energy that the resulting environmental impact will make space a better option.

However, previous reports by BlockTempo have noted that a former NASA engineer and Google Cloud expert explained why building data centers in space is completely impractical, citing challenges ranging from power supply and heat dissipation to radiation tolerance.

Simply put: this is absolutely a terrible idea that makes no sense at all. There are many reasons, but in short, the electronic equipment required to operate a data center—especially those deploying AI computing power in the form of GPUs and TPUs—are simply not suited for operation in space.

Further reading: Former NASA engineer: Building space data centers is the worst idea I’ve ever heard

Altman’s Space Plans on Hold

Sources reveal that talks between Altman and Stoke Space are currently paused. Until technology and regulations mature, OpenAI will keep its financial focus on Earth.

Stoke Space was founded by former employees of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and is committed to building fully reusable rockets, aiming to catch up with the goals currently being pursued by Musk’s SpaceX.

The Energy Bottleneck in AI Development

OpenAI has committed to investing $1.4 trillion over the next eight years to expand its data centers—an amount about 70 times its annual revenue of $20 billion. Among these plans, OpenAI will partner with Oracle and SoftBank to build five mega campuses, with a budget exceeding $300 billion, and will develop a new base in Milam County, Texas, through SoftBank’s SB Energy Global.

Related agreements have been announced since November. In a November podcast, Altman stated bluntly: “Energy is the key constraint for chip manufacturing and AI expansion.”

Whether the final data centers are located on the Texas plains or in low-Earth orbit, the logic is the same: AI models require unprecedented levels of electricity and cooling. Google, under Alphabet, and satellite operator Planet Labs have reached an agreement to launch two prototype satellites equipped with Google AI chips in 2027. Whether the ideal of sending data centers into space can be realized remains to be seen.

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This article “OpenAI’s Space Race? Sam Altman Plots Stake in Rocket Company Stoke Space, Targeting Musk’s SpaceX” was originally published by BlockTempo, the most influential blockchain news media.