Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently took the helm of Relativity Space, a startup specialising in space launchers. His ambition is to one day place data centres directly into orbit, powered by solar energy, with the aim of alleviating their environmental footprint on Earth.

A few weeks ago, Eric Schmidt warned of a possible future energy crisis at a hearing before the US Congress. According to him, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) means that the share of data center activity in global electricity consumption could rise from the current 3% to 99% in the future.