The World Economic Forum kicked off 2026 by speculating about the potential for data centres in space. SpaceX highlights how the build-out of orbital data centres justifies the need for millions of satellites as part of a massive new initiative it now calls Starmind. McKinsey (which believes we will be spending $7trillion on data centres by 2030!) and Y Combinator further amplified the potential (many of these stories revolve around Starcloud, which champions space-based data centres and was the fastest unicorn in Y Combinator history). The logic is that “It is difficult to match the energy demands of artificial intelligence on Earth, especially as we race towards artificial general intelligence. […] Space offers a natural environment for high-efficiency, sustainable computing, providing solutions to the very challenges that limit terrestrial development.” But critics have questioned both the economic and technical feasibility, and expressed concerns over governance risk.
At the same time, space is becoming increasingly contested from a ‘national’ security perspective. Last month, for the first time, the US acknowledged that it had deployed weapons in space. This was immediately criticised by Russia and China although both countries are also thought to be developing their military space potential. The 2026 Global Counterspace Capabilities Report documents how 13 states including the US, Russia, China, as well as France, India, Iran and Israel and many others are developing their military strategies in space.
The combination of these developments has, unsurprisingly, led some to speculate that these orbital data centres will exacerbate the already rising tensions over space. There are also concerns over possible catastrophic scenarios resulting from both military and civilian deployment.
- Do you find the vision for orbital data centres compelling? Are your doubts primarily technical, economic, governance or a combination?
- Does shifting Earthbound conflicts into space pose any particular concerns that are distinct from more traditional geopolitical conflict?
- Quite apart from data centres and weapons, are you a space enthusiast/optimist or a space skeptic/pessimist?