Data centres are controversial: will launching them into space help?

Companies have proposed launching fleets of satellites into orbit that would act similar to data centres on Earth. Credit: NicoElNino/Alamy As the huge data centres powering the artificial-intelligence boom grow ever more unpopular on Earth, companies are planning to launch them into space. Data centres will use twice as much energy by 2030 — driven by AI In the past few months, firms including SpaceX, Google and Blue Origin have all shared plans to launch large fleets, or constellations, of …