How hard is it to build orbital data centers, actually?

Ars Technica · 3 months ago · 42

SpaceX plans to deploy a constellation of 1 million satellites in orbit to serve as data centers, shifting its business focus away from rockets toward hosting artificial intelligence computing infrastructure. The company aims to power up to 100 million frontier-class GPUs across these orbital facilities, with individual AI1 satellites designed to generate 120 GW of power. This orbital data center approach would allow SpaceX to offer computing services directly from space rather than relying on ground-based infrastructure.