Image: Generated via Google’s Nano Banana

China’s next data center boom may not happen on Earth.

Orbital Chenguang, a Beijing-based startup, has secured early funding and $8.4 billion in strategic credit lines to develop space-based data centers. The pitch sounds like sci-fi, but China is treating it as infrastructure: a way to ease the pressure on power, cooling, and land from surging AI and cloud demand.

If it works, the next major computing frontier may be a network of machines circling hundreds of miles above Earth.

Massive backing means massive priority

According to a new report from SpaceNews , Orbital Chenguang has raised early-stage funding alongside securing 57.7 billion yuan (approximately $8.4 billion) in strategic credit lines from a dozen major Chinese banks.…