India, March 3 -- The idea of space data centres sounds like something pulled straight out of science fiction. Yet as artificial intelligence systems grow larger and more power-hungry, serious conversations are now taking place about building orbital computing infrastructure beyond Earth's atmosphere. The AI boom has triggered an unprecedented surge in electricity demand, turning electric power into the single biggest bottleneck for future digital growth. Training large AI models and running hyperscale cloud platforms now require vast server farms that consume as much energy as entire towns, and in some cases, small countries.

In Europe, for example, data centres accounted for about 22 percent of Ireland's total national electricity cons...