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by ericd 140 days ago
Because GPUs are expensive, much more expensive than launch costs if they get starship to the low end of the range they’re aiming for, and you want your expensive equipment running as much as possible to amortize the cost down?
1 comments

But the GPUs on the ground will be a lot cheaper to manufacture as they don't have to deal with space conditions.

It seems a real stretch to me to assume that costs for putting GPUs into space can ever come within a factor of 2-3 of putting them on the ground, even neglecting launch costs.

(expanding on this) A little bit old... but not that old in the scale of things...

The CPUs of Spacecraft Computers in Space https://www.cpushack.com/space-craft-cpu.html (that is still 2012) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25470678 (this discussion is from 2020)