Sam Altman Wants OpenAI To Go To Space, And He's Not Talking About Mars

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is keen on building a space-oriented business, according to The Wall Street Journal – a move that may intensify the rivalry between Altman and Elon Musk. However, Altman's motives do not necessarily match Musk's plans for his well-known rocket company. While Musk has been building reusable SpaceX rockets to eventually power manned missions to Mars, Altman is reportedly interested in a different type of space exploration and colonization. A rocket company owned and/or operated by OpenAI will allow it to deploy AI data centers in space and harness the sun's energy to power them. Building AI data centers in space could eventually prove cheaper to operate in the future, in addition to reducing the environmental burden on the Earth.

According to WSJ, Altman negotiated a space deal with a startup called Stoke Space that's working on Nova — a reusable rocket. Stoke was founded by former employees of Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' rocket company — one of the biggest competitors to Musk's SpaceX. Y Combinator, a startup incubator, has invested in Stoke. The conversations between Altman and Stoke started in the summer and picked up in the fall, without resulting in a deal. Altman sought for OpenAI to either buy a rocket company or partner with one. One of the proposed deals was for the AI firm to make a series of investments in Stoke, which would have given OpenAI a controlling stake. Eventually, OpenAI would have invested billions of dollars in the startup.

OpenAI is committed to spending almost $600 billion in new data centers for ChatGPT, even though the company's current revenue can't accommodate such investments. After all, the company is projected to make $13 billion this year. One of the deals Altman initiated is an investment of $18 billion in Stargate — a data center company. OpenAI also announced partnerships with Oracle, Nvidia, and AMD in previous months. At the time, the market sentiment for AI investments was at a peak. Oracle and Nvidia shares went up after the announcements. The discussions with Stoke may have started in that context. However, the market sentiment turned last month, with Oracle and Nvidia shares falling by 19% and 13%, respectively. 

Securing enough data centers to power existing and new ChatGPT capabilities is a top priority for the company, and setting up data centers in space could solve the issue. Notably, OpenAI isn't the only AI firm considering the space for future data centers. Google is set to send two prototype satellites with Google AI chips on board in 2027, with Planet Labs tasked to launch them. Earlier this week, OpenAI issued a code red ChatGPT memo for improvements at the company, urging staff to drop other projects and focus on improving the ChatGPT experience, after Gemini 3 Pro outscored it in benchmarks. With that as a priority, we're not sure how soon the company will foray into space-related missions.