By Selva Ozelli Esq, CPA, Author of Sustainably Investing in Digital Assets Globally

This is the second article in a series of articles I am writing for Irish Tech News to explore the financial, technical, legal aspects of utilizing space solar energized orbital data centers that are rapidly evolving into "AI Factories, designed specifically to convert massive amounts of electrical power into intelligence, measured in tokens" around the world.

The US Space Race

My new series is a follow up to an interview ITN conducted with me in 2020 exploring how space solar energy could sustainably energize the tokenization of the global financial markets which is projected to grow to multi-trillion dollars by the end of the decade.

The shift toward space-solarized data infrastructure is accelerating in the US rapidly following the historic March 1, 2026, drone strikes on AWS data centers in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain which has extended during April and May. Executed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), these kinetic strikes marked the first time commercial hyperscale data centers were directly targeted and physically damaged in active warfare. The attacks caused prolonged service disruptions, exposed the vulnerability of terrestrial tech infrastructure, and proved that earth bound data centers are now prioritized military targets.

As detailed in the table below US technology and aerospace companies are increasingly looking to space-solarized solutions to address the immense energy and cooling demands of AI, with several key initiatives emerging.

US Tech and Aerospace Companies Focused on Space Solarized Data Centers

Hyperscale Cloud Company

Orbital Edge Computing

Orbital Data Center/Number of Satellite Constellation

Space Solar

LEO Network

Rocket

Launch

Robotics

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Y

Y, Blue Origin – Blue Ring spacecraft/ Project Sunrise 51,600

Y

Y, Amazon LEO

Y

Y

Microsoft Azure

Y, Azure Space

N, Sold Azure Orbital Ground Station

N, Space Azure Solar Cell Tech

N

N

Y

Google Cloud

Y, Space Llama

Y, Project Suncatcher in partnership with Planet Labs a high-profile "moonshot" initiative aimed at building and deploying artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in space/81

Y

N

Space X

Y, Google Deep Mind

Meta

N, Terrestrial Edge Computing

N

Y, Metasat & Overview Energy

N, High-altitude, solar-powered drones (Aquila project)

N

Y

Starcloud

Y

Y Partnership with AWS/88,000

Y

Y, Starcloud-1 (November 2025): first test satellite containing an Nvidia H100 chip, that survived radiation and function in space.

SpaceX

Y

Space X – Orbital Data Center

Y

Y/ 1,000,000

Y

Starlink

Y

Y

Nividia

Y, NVIDIA Space-1 Vera Rubin computing platform

Y

Y

Y

Space X

Y

Atherflux rebranded to Cowboy Space

Y

Y/ 20,000

Y

N

N

Y

Lone Star

Y, (2021) First data storage and edge processing test at International Space Station

Y, Orbital and Lunar Data Center with NASA

Y

Y

Space X

Y

Axiom Space

Y, In March 2025, Axiom deployed Red Hat Device Edge on the ISS to test terrestrial cloud applications in space, serving as a prototype for ODC Nodes.

Y

Y

Y

Space X

Y

Two Distinct Approaches in Space Solarized Data Center Operations in the US

US technology and space companies in a race are aggressively pursuing orbital and space-solarized data centers and are tackling these operations through two distinct methodologies: orbital data processing (in-space edge compute) and space-based terrestrial power harvesting. Both approaches aim to bypass the escalating energy demands, cooling constraints, and land footprint limitations of Earth-based data center infrastructure.

The two approaches differ significantly in how they utilize space and solar resources. Here is a summary:

Terrestrial vs. Space-Based AI Compute

Constraint

Terrestrial Data Centers

Orbital Data Centers

Power Source

Strained local power grids

Unlimited, direct solar energy

Cooling

High water and energy consumption

Natural cold of space vacuum

Space & Regulation

Tight zoning laws and land limits

No ter...