The founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, revealed this Thursday that he seeks to build data centers in space and move polluting industries off Earth with his aerospace company Blue Origin, which this Sunday will launch a rocket on a NASA mission.
“We’ve already put a lot of communications in space. We can start building factories in space, we can start building data centers in space,” Bezos declared at the America Business Forum (ABF) in Miami.
Bezos, who founded Blue Origin in 2000, argued that in space eight times more solar energy is obtained for each unit of area, which “could make data centers in space that would be very efficient.”
“That’s something Blue Origin is working on. A lot of companies are working on it, but it’s not something you can be sure is going to work. I don’t know what the launch costs will be and whatnot. Technically it works, but there are a lot of mysteries about that too,” he explained.
The businessman recalled that a rocket from his space company will propel two ships to Mars orbit on Sunday in NASA’s ESCAPADE mission to study the structure of the Martian magnetic field and its interaction with space weather.
The tycoon said he was “very excited and anxious” because it is the second time they have launched this vehicle, called ‘New Glenn’.
His statements reflect the acceleration of space competition between private companies and governments, since just in August NASA revealed that the United States plans to build a nuclear reactor on the Moon to operate from 2030 as part of the “race” it maintains with China.
More context in: Data centers in space? Jeff Bezos believes it is possible
“In the long run, we will obtain materials not even from the Earth, but from the Moon, objects and asteroids. We have unlimited energy and material resources in space, and this planet is so beautiful and unusual, it is the one we are going to want to protect. There is no plan B,” Bezos now argued.
The businessman also vindicated his investments in artificial intelligence (AI), while the private sector analyzes the next steps of Amazon, the second largest employer in the US, since two weeks ago it announced that it will reduce its corporate workforce by 14,000 people to eliminate bureaucracy.
The company plans automation in its warehouses capable of avoiding up to 600,000 hires in the United States in the coming years, according to a report by The New York Times, which the company qualified with the message that robots will help employees in their tasks.
“It’s as good as they paint it. Investors are investing now in everything, good ideas, bad ideas, but the fundamentals of what is happening are very powerful and will impact all industries, and will make each industry more productive,” the businessman now said.
With information from EFE
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