Beijing institute plans to build space data centers

An institute in Beijing is preparing to launch its first new type of high-computing-power experimental satellites by late 2025 or early 2026, as China seeks new ways to meet surging demand for computing power amid global energy constraints driven by artificial intelligence, experts said on Thursday.

"Large-scale data centers have expanded rapidly worldwide, but further growth faces major obstacles, including heavy land use, soaring energy consumption and limits on atmospheric cooling," said Zhang Shancong, director of the Beijing Astro-future Institute of Space Technology and chief scientist at Beijing Orbit Twilight Technology Co.

Space-based solutions offer abundant solar energy and the stable minus 270 C cosmic environment, enabling continuous solar power generation and highly efficient passive radiation cooling — a potentially groundbreaking approach to meeting future computational needs, according to the Beijing institute.