The Chinese want to build data centers for AI in space. At least they won’t have a problem with cooling there

New space data centers will integrate the capabilities of “cloud computing and edge computing” and “deep integration of computing power, storage capacity and transmission bandwidth” should be achieved so that data from Earth can be processed in space, according to the report.

Beijing plans to put energy-intensive artificial intelligence processing payloads into Earth’s orbit, using solar power centers of at least one gigawatt to create an industrial-scale “space cloud” by 2030, according to a December CASC policy paper.

The document identifies the integration of space solar energy with AI computing as a key pillar of the new ‘five-year plan’.

CASC’s plan also states that in the next five years, the development of tourism in the Earth’s orbit will gradually start, CCTV reported.

The CASC plans, announced after the opening of the first School of Interstellar Navigation at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which is supposed to train a new generation of “space talents”, signal China’s ambitions to strategically shift operations in near-Earth orbit to deep space exploration.

“The next 10 to 20 years will be the time for a big leap in China’s development of interstellar navigation, and technological breakthroughs will reshape the pattern of deep space exploration,” writes the Chinese news agency Xinhua in a report on the opening of the school.

Race with SpaceX

And the American company SpaceX plans to establish data centers in orbit to overcome energy limitations on Earth. The money will be obtained through an initial public offering of shares, which is planned for the end of the year.

SpaceX plans to launch solar-powered artificial intelligence data center satellites in the next two to three years, Musk said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week.

“Building solar-powered data centers in space is self-evident, space will be the cheapest place to put artificial intelligence and the plan will be implemented in two years, three at the latest,” Musk said.

Solar energy in orbit can produce five times more energy than panels on the ground, he emphasized.

The reusable Falcon 9 rocket has enabled Starlink to build an almost monopolistic position in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite segment, and is also used for space tourism.

China’s tests of reusable rockets have not yet been crowned with success, notes Reuters.