Sam Altman, the co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, apparently decided that competing with Elon Musk on Earth wasn't quite enough. He reportedly explored a deal to acquire or partner with a potential SpaceX rival, though the plan ultimately didn't take flight.

The Stoke Space Deal That Wasn't

According to a Wall Street Journal report Wednesday, Altman looked into either taking over or partnering with Stoke Space, a rocket company founded by former employees of Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos's own SpaceX competitor. The deal was called off earlier this year, though sources indicated Altman was seeking a controlling stake through equity investment.

Stoke Space, headquartered in Kent, Washington, bills itself as a company providing "seamless mobility to, through, and from space." Their rocket, called Nova, features what they describe as a "liquid, regeneratively cooled metallic reentry heat shield" and is supposedly 100% reusable. The company claims Nova can haul 3 tons of payload to low Earth orbit.

The timing is interesting. This exploration came amid what's been described as a "code red" declaration at OpenAI focused on improving product quality. Neither OpenAI nor Stoke Space responded to requests for comment.

The Space Datacenter Rush

Here's where things get more interesting. Altman's space ambitions aren't happening in a vacuum. There's a growing push among tech heavyweights to establish orbital datacenters, and Musk has been particularly vocal about the concept.

Musk has touted solar-powered AI datacenter satellites in space as a more cost-effective alternative to ground-based facilities. He's predicted a convergence between his various enterprises including Tesla Inc. (TSLA), SpaceX, and his AI venture xAI. According to Musk, chip production remains his only major unsolved puzzle piece in this orbital datacenter vision.

Bezos And Pichai Join The Orbital Race

Musk isn't alone in his extraterrestrial datacenter dreams. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) founder Bezos has championed the idea of gigawatt-scale datacenters in space, also arguing they could prove more economical than their earthbound counterparts. Bezos is backing a new startup called Project Prometheus that will focus on AI applications in automotive, aerospace, and scientific research.

Meanwhile, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) (GOOG), has outlined his company's own orbital datacenter initiative. Project Suncatcher aims to launch a low Earth orbit datacenter powered directly by solar energy in space.

So while Altman's Stoke Space deal may have fizzled, the broader race to commercialize space for AI infrastructure is very much alive. It's shaping up to be another front in the ongoing competition among tech's biggest names, this time with the battlefield located a few hundred miles above our heads.