Orbital seeks FCC clearance for 100,000 AI data-center satellites

The Economic Times reports that U.S. startup Orbital wants to build space-based data centers for AI inference workloads. Founder Euwyn Poon said the company has filed with the FCC for clearance to place up to 100,000 satellites in low Earth orbit, targeting 10 gigawatts of compute capacity. Orbital plans a first data-center satellite launch next year and argues that cheaper Starship launches could make large-scale orbital compute practical later in the decade.

Key details: Orbital is seeking FCC clearance for up to 100,000 low-Earth-orbit satellites, The company targets 10 gigawatts of AI compute capacity, Its first data-center satellite is planned for launch next year.

Why it matters: The proposal shows how extreme the search for AI compute capacity has become as terrestrial power, cooling, and land constraints bite.