China launches 'Supercomputing-1' AI satellite as orbital data centers gather momentum

China has launched nine satellites — including its first integrated “rocket and satellite” AI computing project — as part of its push to put AI computing in orbit. According to a Digitimes report, the Kinetica 1 Y18 rocket, operated by Chinese commercial launch provider CAS Space, lifted off on September 20, carrying the nine satellites to their planned orbits.The payload of greatest interest is the “Supercomputing-1” satellite, developed by Chinese AI computing infrastructure company S-AIDC. Also known as the S-AIDC-1, the satellite is designed to capture and process Earth-observation data in orbit instead of sending data back to terrestrial data centers. Keeping the processing local is meant to cut cross-regional data processing times from hours to minutes. The satellite features both a high-res optical payload and the image-processing AI computer.Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.