Shanghai has intensified its push into the commercial space sector by inaugurating a new space-computing forum and unveiling a dedicated industry hub in the city’s Songjiang district, a move that aims to strengthen China’s position in the global space race, particularly in competition with the United States.
The event, held recently in Shanghai’s southwestern district, gathered key stakeholders across aerospace development, semiconductor manufacturing, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, research, and investment. The new center is designed to advance in-orbit data processing technologies that allow satellites to analyze data directly in space. This capability reduces the need to send large volumes of raw data back to Earth, enhancing real-time intelligence capabilities and alleviating bandwidth constraints.
Looking further ahead, officials have outlined plans to develop orbital data centers powered by solar energy, which could help mitigate the demand on terrestrial power grids. These ambitions align with Songjiang’s strategic focus on commercial space as a pillar of its economic development.
Songjiang is already a significant node in China’s satellite manufacturing and supply network. It hosts SpaceSail, a government-supported company working on the Qianfan constellation, which represents China’s primary low-Earth-orbit (LEO) challenger to the U.S.-based SpaceX Starlink system. SpaceSail has launched over 200 satellites to date and aims to deploy a constellation of 15,000 satellites by 2030.
In addition to SpaceSail, the district is home to manufacturers such as Gesi Aerospace and Xuntian Qianhe, as well as the Shanghai Aerospace Precision Machinery Research Institute. Local authorities estimated the value of Songjiang’s satellite internet sector at 23 billion yuan (around HK$26.8 billion) in 2023, supported by more than 100 companies along the supply chain.
Songjiang also hosts Shanghai’s only officially designated 6G industry zone, where 81 companies generated approximately 24 billion yuan in revenue last year. Under a new action plan, the district aims to achieve over 5 billion yuan in sales from space-computing and related industries by 2030.
These developments fit within the broader ambitions outlined in China’s latest five-year plan, which identified satellite internet as a critical part of national digital infrastructure to be developed proactively. The government’s strategy calls for accelerated deployment of LEO constellations and enhanced integration of satellite, airborne, and ground systems in communications, navigation, remote sensing, and computing.
Beyond Shanghai, the pursuit of space-related computing capabilities is evident in other regions, such as Zhejiang province. There, the state-backed Zhejiang Lab is leading the Three-Body Computing Constellation project, a satellite cluster designed to carry out data processing directly in orbit.
Together, these initiatives reflect China’s growing commitment to expanding its commercial space manufacturing capacity, launch capabilities, and ambitions in lunar and deep-space exploration, as it seeks to solidify its standing as a major space power.