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Space Data Centers: The Next AI Frontier?
9 Jun
Summary
- Orbital aims to build 10,000 satellites for distributed computing power.
- The company is betting on SpaceX's Starship for economic feasibility.
- A demo flight will test radiation shielding and thermal management.
Orbital, a startup emerging from a16z's accelerator, has raised $5 million to develop space-based data centers. The company aims to deploy 10,000 satellites, collectively offering a gigawatt of computing power, with a future goal of 100 kw per satellite. This ambitious project hinges on the commercial availability of SpaceX's Starship for cost-effective launches.
Currently, Orbital is developing crucial technologies, including radiation shielding and thermal management. A test flight planned for 2026 will feature an Nvidia Blackwell chip to validate these systems. By 2028, the company anticipates launching its first data-processing spacecraft equipped with Nvidia's GPUs, aiming to generate revenue through incremental inference work.
While Orbital awaits Starship's operational status, competitors are pursuing alternative strategies. Some are developing their own launch vehicles or planning launches with existing heavy-lift rockets. The demand for AI compute is seen as vast enough to support multiple companies exploring different approaches to space data centers.
