Aeronautics firm Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, is seeking permission from the U.S. government to launch a network of more than 50,000 satellites designed to serve as an orbital data center that can support artificial intelligence workloads.
Blue Origin has filed an application that outlines plans for "Project Sunrise," described as a network of up to 51,600 satellites in sun-synchronous orbit. The company already has launch sites in Florida and West Texas.
"The insatiable demand for AI workloads has led to the rapid buildout of terrestrial data centers globally," Blue Origin's application said. "Space-based data centers will be a complement to terrestrial infrastructure by introducing a new compute tier that operates independently of Earth-based constraints."
The orbital satellites will operate without concerns about water and energy supply, Blue Origin's attorneys said in the application, with the "demand for space-based compute power ... growing." The Bezos-owned company, based in the Seattle area, did not immediately respond to a CoStar News' request seeking additional information on the satellites.
Blue Origin isn't the only company that wants to build data centers in space as the massive adoption of AI weighs on Earth's resources. Billionaire Elon Musk is also pushing to add new data center capacities in space, with an application seeking to send 1 million satellites into Earth's low orbit.
On Earth, data center developers have pushed to new frontiers, with rural areas undergoing transformation as real estate and technology firms seek sparsely populated regions that have excess energy and water to power the AI boom. Taking data centers into orbit, proponents say, could offer a more cost- and energy-efficient way to operate a data center.
Real estate professionals say there's a lot to think about in terms of getting a data center capable of AI workloads into space; projects with such heavy infrastructure needs likely would require a significant amount of capital.
Capital-intensive investments into AI-capable data centers are rising. Colliers noted that global data center investment in 2025 was $580 billion — up 27% from the prior year, the firm said in its recently released 2026 data center report.
"At the macro level, investment tied to AI and data center infrastructure represented roughly 4% of U.S. gross domestic product in early 2025, yet drove the majority of GDP growth," Colliers said in the report, with private credit now providing about 60% to 70% of predevelopment capital.
Private credit is expected to supply more than half of the $1.5 trillion in global data center funding required through 2028, Colliers said, citing Morgan Stanley data.
"While this accelerates project timelines and enables rapid scaling, it also introduces a new layer of risk," Colliers said in the report. "Capital is being deployed through opaque, illiquid structures with limited regulatory oversight, concentrating early-stage development exposure within private funds rather than distributing it across regulated banking channels."