China Plans Space Data Center 800km Above Sea Level

China has embarked on many daring projects and is planning to execute another one. The Beijing sci-tech commission has just revealed that the city intends to build a data center in space 800km above earth.

A local news outlet reported that the resolution was the outcome of a meeting held on Thursday 28 January by the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission and Beijing Astro-future Institute of Space Technology.

As part of plans for the data center, an innovation consortium of 24 industrial chain organizations for the space data center led by the Beijing Astro-future Institute of Space Technology was also inaugurated during the meeting. 

China to Launch High-Power Space Data Center

China is taking technology seriously and especially in artificial intelligence (AI) where it is in a tight race with the United States. Nvidia CEO Jansen Huang in early November said that China was on track to win the AI race against the U.S. This new idea is clearly a part of the race.

The authorities at the meeting revealed that the space data center will be a large centralized system with power in a unit exceeding gigawatts. The center will also have space computing power, relay transmission, and ground control subsystems with each sub-center capable of hosting server clusters with millions of cards.

Prior to China’s space data center ambition, the country had already built the world’s first wind-powered underwater data center (UDC) in Shanghai and has a commercial underwater data center in Hainan. Now, Space will be the latest habitat that Chinese scientists invade with the AI expansion game.

The Race to build Data Centers in Space

China has been very proactive in its technological advancement, but it isn’t the only country with an ambition to build in space. Elon Musk had in October stated the plans to build data centers in space using Starlink satellites. 

Now, it looks like the race to build a data center in space is on, although Musk doesn’t have a timeline yet, which puts China ahead. Apart from data centers, China also has other ambitions for building in space. The country recently revealed plans to build infrastructure on the moon using what it calls “lunar bricks”.

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