Recently, “space computing power” has become a hot topic. At the 2026 Space Computing Power Industry Conference, China’s first industry collaborative platform — the Space Computing Power Professional Committee — was officially established.
U.S. entrepreneur Elon Musk said that within 36 months, space will become the cheapest place to deploy artificial intelligence. According to experts from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), space computing power is equivalent to moving ground data centers into space, boasting advantages such as on-orbit real-time processing, low-cost energy and wide-area coverage.
The global on-orbit data center market is projected to reach $39 billion by 2035. China has taken the lead in achieving in-orbit networking operation of a space computing constellation. However, technical bottlenecks in inter-satellite communication, satellite-borne chips, energy thermal management and launch services still need to be broken through.
