Masayoshi Son dismisses Musk's vision of space data centers: AI competition will still be decided on land

Odaily reports that Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank Group, stated at the annual general meeting of SoftBank's Japanese telecom business unit on June 23 that building data centers in space holds almost no practical value, and the outcome of future AI competition will still be determined by computing infrastructure on land.

Responding to a shareholder's question about whether SoftBank would follow Musk's lead in constructing space data centers, Son explicitly opposed the idea. He pointed out that while space data centers are believed to reduce electricity costs, power expenses account for only a small fraction of a data center's operating costs compared to core hardware like chips. Conversely, deploying data centers in space would also entail high rocket transportation costs, maintenance difficulties, and communication latency issues.

Son emphasized that in the AI industry competition, development in the coming years is far more crucial than visions for a decade later. SoftBank will focus on building robust data center infrastructure on land and adhere to a "first-mover advantage" strategy.

Additionally, SoftBank's Japanese telecom business unit is planning to enter the U.S. market for a new type of cloud computing tailored for AI (Neocloud).