Agnikul aims to demonstrate space-based data centre hosting

Chennai: As the race to build infrastructure for artificial intelligence heats up, IIT Madras-incubated space-tech startup Agnikul Cosmos joins the list of global companies exploring hosting data centres in space. The company aims to demonstrate these capabilities with AI cloud infrastructure startup NeevCloud by deploying its cloud platform in low-earth orbit and enabling AI inference. Speaking to TOI, Moin SPM, co-founder of Agnikul said it plans to demonstrate the capabilities in its upcoming orbital space flight and that its existing patented reusable technology can host data centres with only incremental research and development. "While everyone discards the payload, we have converted the upper stage itself into a satellite bus. Now we will provide the infrastructure support similar to other payloads and most technology is already proven. Our job is to make sure that our assets perform in space," the company said.
Agnikul will provide the space infrastructure, including solar energy to the data centres, while partners will handle the computing and processing. The founder said they began working on this concept in 2019 and secured a patent for the technology. With major players like Sam Altman and Elon Musk now focusing on orbital data centre infrastructure, the market has matured, he added. The collaboration aims to build an orbital data centre with constellations that will scale as the number of launches increases. Agnikul, which has raised $17 million, plans to launch an orbital mission using reusable propulsion systems. Globally, companies like StarCloud, SpaceX and Google are experimenting with space-based data centres.