Shanghai Launches 'Pearl Constellation Plan' for Orbital AI Infrastructure by 2030
Shanghai's Oriental Sky Computing platform officially launched the 'Pearl Constellation Plan' to build gigawatt-scale orbital AI computing infrastructure. Developed in collaboration with Shanghai Jiao Tong University and industry partners, the initiative aims to establish a global space-ground collaborative service network by 2030. This project reflects China's strategy to extend artificial intelligence infrastructure directly into low Earth orbit. Offloading complex computing workloads to orbital hardware helps bypass terrestrial land and energy constraints while enabling real-time edge processing in space. The plan outlines a broad system-level architecture integrating compute nodes, satellite networking, orbital energy, and cloud services. It builds on Shanghai's broader commercial space push, which includes developing optical computing satellites that leverage near-zero static power consumption to fit satellite energy constraints.
## BACKGROUND
Space computing involves deploying data centers or edge processing modules directly onto satellite constellations rather than relying solely on terrestrial data processing. Optical computing uses photons instead of electrons to process data, offering high energy efficiency suitable for satellite environments with strict power budgets.