China has launched nine satellites — including its first integrated “rocket and satellite” AI computing project — as part of its push to put AI computing in orbit. According to a Digitimes report, the Kinetica 1 Y18 rocket, operated by Chinese commercial launch provider CAS Space, lifted off on September 20, carrying the nine satellites to their planned orbits.

The payload of greatest interest is the “Supercomputing-1” satellite, developed by Chinese AI computing infrastructure company S-AIDC. Also known as the S-AIDC-1, the satellite is designed to capture and process Earth-observation data in orbit instead of sending data back to terrestrial data centers. Keeping the processing local is meant to cut cross-regional data processing times from hours to minutes. The satellite features both a high-res optical payload and the image-processing AI computer.

According to Digitimes, the launch highlights China's efforts to develop orbital computing as part of a “broader integrated computing network.” In early June, the Chinese government approved the Space Computing Industry Innovation Center, which aims to bring together rocket and satellite manufacturers, semiconductor fabs, and AI tech companies to build a space computing network. A couple of factors are driving this spike in the development of off-planet computing, foremost among them being the AI boom.

The demand for artificial intelligence has spurred the construction of numerous data centers to house AI accelerators. These data centers, some of which can house hundreds of thousands of accelerators , consume unprecedented amounts of electricity, placing significant strain on the grid.

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