US and China Race to Orbit: SpaceX and CASC Plan AI Data Centers in Space

Elon Musk’s SpaceX and China’s CASC race to launch solar-powered AI data centers in orbit, transforming computing and space dominance.

Elon Musk's plan to send US-based SpaceX data centers into orbit is challenged by China's plans to launch space-based AI data centers over the next five years, according to state media on Thursday.

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the country's primary space contractor, promised to "construct gigawatt-class space digital-intelligence infrastructure" in a five-year development plan that state broadcaster CCTV cited.

The new space data centers will accomplish "deep integration of computing power, storage capacity, and transmission bandwidth" and "integrate cloud, edge, and terminal (device) capabilities," allowing data from Earth to be processed in space.

SpaceX intends to use funds from its 25 billion-dollar blockbuster IPO this year to build orbiting AI data centers in response to terrestrial energy constraints. Musk stated last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the firm intends to launch solar-powered AI data center satellites within the next two to three years.

"Building solar-power data centers in space is a no-brainer. Space will be the lowest-cost place to put AI, and that will be true within two years, three at the latest," Musk stated. According to him, solar energy in orbit may generate five times as much power as solar panels on the ground. According to a December CASC strategy document, China also intends to move the energy-intensive burden of AI processing into orbit by building an industrial-scale "Space Cloud" by 2030 using "gigawatt-class" solar-powered hubs.

According to the document, one of the main tenets of China's next 15th Five-Year Plan, a strategy for economic development is the integration of space-based solar power with AI computing. Also, the CASC plan also promised to "achieve the flight operation of suborbital space tourism and gradually expand orbital space tourism" over the following five years.

China and the US compete to be the first to take advantage of the military and geopolitical benefits of space dominance, and also to turn space research into a lucrative business similar to civil aviation. By 2045, CASC aims to make China a "world-leading space power."