[positr0n]

Even if I do accept your claims that cooling in space is not insurmountable, you still would grant that launching and cooling (and shielding??) a data center in space still cost more dollars than building a data center on earth right? What is the use case that people will spend money to rent servers in space? I think nations have a strong enough grip on the internet now that the customer use case of "evading my country's laws" won't generate that much revenue.

Is the hope that power will be cheaper because solar panels have direct and continuous exposure to the sun?

[GMoromisato]

There is no physical reason why it can't be cheaper. For starters, solar power is 4x better in space, so you need 1/4th the area of panels. But also, data center costs are skewed by things like permits, environmental reviews, and (increasingly) lawsuits.

Terrestrial data center costs are only going up, while space tech costs keep going down. It is plausible (but not guaranteed) that they will intersect at some point.