Europe lags behind US and China in orbital data center race

A report from the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI), published in August 2026, paints a stark picture of Europe’s position in the emerging orbital data center (ODC) market. While the US and China pour billions into launching server farms into low Earth orbit, Europe’s efforts remain stuck at the demonstration stage, limited to small-scale experiments. The scale gap is enormous China’s ambitions in orbital computing have moved well past the blueprint phase. In May 2025, the country deployed 12 satellites as part of its Three-Body Constellation, a network designed to process data directly in orbit rather than beaming it back to terrestrial facilities. In April 2026, Beijing Orbital Twilight Technology secured an $8.4 billion credit line to fund its orbital infrastructure buildout. Then in July 2026, Shanghai Xingshu Tiansuan launched the first satellites in what’s planned to be a 1,000-satellite network. The US side of the ledger is equally staggering. Starcloud, formerly known as Lumen Orbit, filed with the FCC for a constellation of 88,000 satellites with an estimated capacity of roughly 20 GW. Orbital, another American venture, filed for up to 100,000 satellites with approxim...