# Orbital Chenguang (Beijing space data center): orbital data center program

> China (China), startup. Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown. Chenguang-1 launched on Kinetica-1 on 2026-07-24 into a 700+ km dawn-dusk orbit.

- Canonical page: https://spacenexus.us/orbital-data-centers/orbital-chenguang
- This Markdown version: https://spacenexus.us/orbital-data-centers/orbital-chenguang.md
- Data as of: 2026-10-05 (last evidence review)
- How the numbers are made: https://spacenexus.us/orbital-data-centers#method

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## Stage evidence

- Chenguang-1 launched on Kinetica-1 on 2026-07-24 into a 700+ km dawn-dusk orbit. Sources: [Beijing municipal government](https://www.beijing.gov.cn/fuwu/lqfw/gggs/202607/t20260726_4788464.html)

## Key figures

- Chenguang-1 compute (claimed, precision not stated): 25 PFLOPS (company claim). Sources: [Sina Finance](https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2026-08-11/doc-inimwuht0845274.shtml)
- Strategic credit from 12 financial institutions (not drawn funding): 57.7 RMB billion. Sources: [China in Space](https://www.china-in-space.com/p/china-seriously-backs-space-based); [Cailian Press](https://www.cls.cn/detail/2350103)
- Shunhao (SZ002565) stake, latest filed (April 2026): 23.78 %. Sources: [Securities Daily (Shunhao filing)](http://epaper.zqrb.cn/images/2026-04/07/D2/zqrb20260407D2.pdf)

## Approach

- Orbit: Dawn-dusk sun-synchronous, 700 to 800 km
- Architecture: Beijing-backed modular computing satellites growing by in-orbit docking toward a gigawatt-class space data center; consortium of about 24 to 30 organizations
- Power: Concentrating solar cells; long-term target above 1 GW
- Cooling: Graphene flexible radiative panels (flown on Chenguang-1)
- Compute: Chenguang-1: claimed 25 PFLOPS from an 8-card onboard server; 10 Gbps laser link
- Customers: AI inference, satellite data processing, edge computing for other spacecraft

## Milestones

| Date | Status | Confidence | Milestone | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2025-08-15 | achieved | Confirmed | Chenguang-1 launch promised for the end of 2025. Restated by Beijing on 2025-11-29 as end 2025 or early 2026. It launched on 2026-07-24 Beijing time, about seven months later. | [Shunhao investor relations record](https://file.finance.qq.com/finance/hs/pdf/2025/08/15/1224500754.PDF); [Beijing municipal government](https://www.beijing.gov.cn/ywdt/gzdt/202511/t20251129_4311303.html) |
| 2025-11-28 | achieved | Confirmed | Beijing announces gigawatt-class space data center plan at 700 to 800 km, three phases to 2035 | [Xinhua](https://english.news.cn/20251128/c7285192375c47c3987114c1b7eeba46/c.html) |
| 2026-04-20 | achieved | Reported | Pre-A1 equity round plus RMB 57.7B of strategic credit from 12 financial institutions. Equity reported as RMB 170M (company filing via Sina Finance). The credit is framework agreements or letters of intent: availability, not drawn funds. | [China in Space](https://www.china-in-space.com/p/china-seriously-backs-space-based); [Sina Finance](https://finance.sina.com.cn/jjxw/2026-04-22/doc-inhvitah5682432.shtml); [Cailian Press](https://www.cls.cn/detail/2350103) |
| 2026-07-24 | achieved | Confirmed | Chenguang-1 launched on Kinetica-1 Y15 | [Beijing municipal government](https://www.beijing.gov.cn/fuwu/lqfw/gggs/202607/t20260726_4788464.html) |
| 2026-08-11 | achieved | Reported | Chenguang-1 reported in planned orbit; validation of solar cells and graphene radiators begins | [Sina Finance](https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2026-08-11/doc-inimwuht0845274.shtml) |
| 2026-09-04 | achieved | Reported | Pre-A+ round led by Yuande Capital (amount undisclosed) | [China in Space](https://www.china-in-space.com/p/orbital-chenguang-testing-computing); [STAR Market Daily](https://www.chinastarmarket.cn/detail/2474242) |

## Announced next steps (as the organisation stated them)

- 2025 to 2027: First computing constellation and key technologies. Sources: [TechRepublic](https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-china-orbital-data-centers-apac/)
- 2028 to 2030: Link space systems with ground data centers. Sources: [TechRepublic](https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-china-orbital-data-centers-apac/)
- 2035: Gigawatt-scale space data center via in-orbit docking. Sources: [Xinhua](https://english.news.cn/20251128/c7285192375c47c3987114c1b7eeba46/c.html)
- by about late 2028 (within three years of November 2025): Constellation compute of 1,000 P. Sources: [Beijing municipal government](https://www.beijing.gov.cn/ywdt/gzdt/202511/t20251129_4311303.html)

## What to watch (SpaceNexus note, not a prediction)

Published on-orbit results from Chenguang-1, which Beijing says will be released progressively.

## Funding

- 20 Apr 2026: Pre-A1, RMB 170M (not verified to our standard). investors include Haisong Capital, CITIC Securities Investment, Cathay Capital and others; single source (company filing reported by Sina Finance); not converted to USD. Sources: [Sina Finance](https://finance.sina.com.cn/jjxw/2026-04-22/doc-inhvitah5682432.shtml)
- 2025: Earlier rounds in 2025 (combined), RMB 140M (not verified to our standard). single source; not converted to USD. Sources: [STAR Market Daily](https://www.chinastarmarket.cn/detail/2474242)
- 4 Sep 2026: Pre-A+ (amount undisclosed), Undisclosed. amount not disclosed. Sources: [Tencent News](https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20260904A09JEP00); [STAR Market Daily](https://www.chinastarmarket.cn/detail/2474242)
- 20 Apr 2026: Strategic credit from 12 financial institutions (framework agreements or letters of intent; about $8.4B per source), RMB 57.7B (not verified to our standard). credit availability, not drawn funding. Sources: [China in Space](https://www.china-in-space.com/p/china-seriously-backs-space-based); [Cailian Press](https://www.cls.cn/detail/2350103)

## Cautions

- The 25 PFLOPS figure is implausible at full precision for a reported 22 nm chip; treat as low-precision AI throughput at best.
- Credit lines are not drawn funding.
- Shunhao (SZ002565), a listed company, held about 24% (23.7756%) as of April 2026, its latest filed figure.

## People

- Zhang Shancong (chairman, founder)
- Zhang Zheyu (CEO)

## Sources

- [Beijing municipal government](https://www.beijing.gov.cn/fuwu/lqfw/gggs/202607/t20260726_4788464.html)
- [Sina Finance](https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2026-08-11/doc-inimwuht0845274.shtml)
- [China in Space](https://www.china-in-space.com/p/china-seriously-backs-space-based)
- [Cailian Press](https://www.cls.cn/detail/2350103)
- [Securities Daily (Shunhao filing)](http://epaper.zqrb.cn/images/2026-04/07/D2/zqrb20260407D2.pdf)
- [Xinhua](https://english.news.cn/20251128/c7285192375c47c3987114c1b7eeba46/c.html)
- [Sina Finance](https://finance.sina.com.cn/jjxw/2026-04-22/doc-inhvitah5682432.shtml)
- [China in Space](https://www.china-in-space.com/p/orbital-chenguang-testing-computing)
- [STAR Market Daily](https://www.chinastarmarket.cn/detail/2474242)
- [Shunhao investor relations record](https://file.finance.qq.com/finance/hs/pdf/2025/08/15/1224500754.PDF)
- [Beijing municipal government](https://www.beijing.gov.cn/ywdt/gzdt/202511/t20251129_4311303.html)
- [TechRepublic](https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-china-orbital-data-centers-apac/)
- [Tencent News](https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20260904A09JEP00)

## Licence and credits

- Licence: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) for the stage, labels and summaries compiled by SpaceNexus. Cite as "Data: SpaceNexus (spacenexus.us)" with a link to https://spacenexus.us/orbital-data-centers/orbital-chenguang.
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