In parts of Britain and North America, securing the power for a new AI data centre can take five to 15 years as grid queues, permitting and community opposition slow projects—one reason orbital-computing companies now argue that launching servers into space could be quicker than securing land and power for them on Earth.

In parts of Britain and North America, securing the power for a new AI data centre can take five to 15 years as grid queues, permitting and community opposition slow projects—one reason orbital-computing companies now argue that launching servers into space could be quicker than securing land and power for them on Earth.

A data-centre developer can acquire land, obtain planning permission and still have no reliable date for the electricity needed to switch on the servers. In the most constrained parts of Britain and North America, the power infrastructure can take longer to deliver than the computing equipment it is supposed to serve. That mismatch has become part of the pitch for orbital computing. If a company can book a launch, attach processors to a satellit…