Startup Wants to Run AI Inference From Space
Los Angeles startup Orbital Inc., backed by Andreessen Horowitz, wants to run AI inference from space using solar-powered satellites in low Earth orbit. The company emerged from stealth in mid-April with plans to build space data centers that tap the sun's energy to power compute for workloads such as chatbots and agents. Orbital's first test is planned for 2027, when it aims to launch a prototype satellite aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9.
Key Takeaways
- The rapid advancement of large language models (LLMs) is fueling a global data center boom and driving a surge in energy demand.
But the electricity required to power data centers is straining the grid, pushing infrastructure operators to search for alternative sources of power.
- "There's actually abundant solar energy that's not being harnessed."
Orbital's vision is a mesh constellation of small satellites in low Earth orbit.
- However, they face the same difficulties as other space data center hopefuls.
Every watt of "free" energy must be dissipated as heat via large radiative coolers ; radiation in low Earth orbit degrades compute equipment; and regular maintenance in space is difficult and costly.
- "It's very simple," Poon says, referring to the concept behind the satellites' engineering.
- Orbital plans to serve them through direct API access for buying tokens and enterprise deals that shift inference demand into its network in space.
The rapid advancement of large language models (LLMs) is fueling a global data center boom and driving a surge in energy demand. But the electricity required to power data centers is straining the grid, pushing infrastructure operators to search for alternative sources of power. Some are even looking beyond Earth.
One company that's looking to the stars for energy is Orbital Inc. In mid-April, the Los Angeles-based startup emerged from stealth and announced plans to build space data centers. Backed by Andreessen Horowitz (A16z), Orbital is designing infrastructure for AI inference, where trained models generate outputs. Much like other companies advocating for space-based data centers, Orbital is banking on the " free " energy generated by the sun to power compute for workloads such as chatbots and agents, sidestepping terrestrial energy constraints.
"There simply isn't enough capacity here [on Earth], and the only way is up," says Euwyn Poon , Orbital's founder and CEO. "There's actually abundant solar energy that's not being harnessed." Orbital's vision is a mesh constellation of small satellites in low Earth orbit.
For more details please read the original article at IEEE Spectrum AI.