Bezos’ Blue Origin to deploy thousands of satellites to rival Musk’s Starlink
The TeraWave plan coincides with a rush to build data centres in space that can meet the soaring demand for large-scale AI data processing
Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin on Wednesday announced a plan to deploy 5,408 satellites in space for a communications network that will serve data centres, governments and businesses, jumping into a satellite constellation market dominated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Deployment of satellites was planned to begin in the last quarter of 2027, Blue Origin said, adding the network was designed to have “data speeds of up to 6 Tbps anywhere on Earth”.
That speed, possible with the satellites’ planned optical communications, is extreme by consumer standards and would make the network key for data processing and large-scale government programmes.
Blue Origin said the network was meant to serve a maximum of roughly 100,000 customers.
The reveal of TeraWave coincides with a space industry rush to build data centres in space that can meet the soaring demand for large-scale AI data processing, which on Earth requires immense energy and resources as adoption of the technology expands.
The planned network adds another satellite constellation linked to Bezos, executive chairman of Amazon, which is in an early phase of deploying Leo – a network formerly called Project Kuiper involving 3,200 satellites providing internet to consumers and businesses.