Softbank CEO dismisses Elon Musk’s extraterrestrial data center idea in favor of maximizing Earth-side construction now: ‘He who strikes first wins’

The billionaire founder of Softbank, who made a fortune backing companies with world-changing ideas like Alibaba, said Elon Musk’s orbital data center plans are as out there as the eccentric Space X founder himself. “In the battle for AI, the next few years will be far more important than what might happen a decade or so from now,” Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son said Tuesday in response to a question at the annual shareholder meeting for Softbank’s wireless and broadband division Tuesday, Bloomberg reported. Sending AI data centers in space doesn’t make sense, he explained, because it will take many years and lots of money. Instead, Softbank is focusing on building out data centers here on Earth. “He who strikes first wins,” he said. While Son noted that Musk is a “remarkable agent of change,” he said his idea for orbital data centers misses the mark because their main purpose would be to cut back on electricity costs, a negligible line item for data centers. Compared to hardware and chips, he said, electricity represents a fraction of the total cost of operating a data center, he explained. Softbank is instead staying grounded. The company is one of the main backers of the Stargate project led by OpenAI that aims to build AI infrastructure across the U.S. In January last year, Son visited the White House to announce Softbank’s initial commitment of $19 billion for the project that plans to invest a total of $500 billion into the effort over four years. Building more data centers on Earth immediately rather than planning to build in space years from now is the way to go, he said Tuesday. Besides, any costs saved by the plentiful, and clean, solar power harnessed in space would be canceled out by the additional costs transporting the required materials into space and maintaining the facilities, he added. Communication delays between Earth and space would also be an issue. Earth over orbit Although Son may be unimpressed with Musk’s orbital data center idea, So