Orbital is planning to launch AI data centers into space to solve power and cooling issues (www.techradar.com)

Orbital is set to revolutionize AI data processing by launching AI data centers into low Earth orbit, addressing the urgent energy constraints faced by modern terrestrial data centers. As the demand for AI models surges, the traditional power grid struggles to keep up, with communities increasingly resistant to new data center constructions due to permitting challenges and environmental concerns. Orbital's innovative approach leverages solar power in space, where solar arrays can operate continuously without interruptions from weather or night cycles, significantly cutting energy costs while utilizing the vacuum of space to naturally cool equipment. Scheduled for a test flight in April 2027 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Orbital-1 will host Nvidia GPUs to validate their operation in orbit and begin running AI inference tasks. This choice of inference over training allows for distributed processing across multiple satellites, making it ideal for the orbital environment. With the marginal cost of energy in space projected to be nearly zero, allowing for a dramatic reduction in operational expenses, Orbital’s initiative not only paves the way for sustainable AI infrastructure but also sets a new frontier for the deployment and scaling of AI capabilities, demonstrating the potential for space-based solutions in tackling Earth-bound technological challenges.