The 2026 Space Computing Industry Conference was held on Friday in Beijing, marking the official establishment of the Space Computing Professional Committee — China's first industry-wide coordination platform dedicated to space computing.

The move signals a new phase of collaborative development for China's space computing sector, which is expected to bolster the nation's ambitions of becoming a digital powerhouse and a strong player in aerospace.

The committee operates under an industry body initiated by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a think tank affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The alliance focuses on advancing the space computing power industry through industrial research, application cultivation, collaborative innovation and international cooperation.

Zhao Ce, deputy head of the department of information and communication technology development at the MIIT, highlighted the broad technological scope of space computing, which spans computing chips, inter-satellite communications, power supply and heat dissipation, launch technologies, and satellite manufacturing.

"Space computing offers advantages such as real-time in-orbit processing, low-cost energy, and wide-area coverage," Zhao said. "These capabilities help improve the efficiency of space-based data processing, enhance space energy development, strengthen global coverage and anti-jamming capabilities, and expand the boundaries of network applications — giving space computing both strategic value and strong industrial prospects."

Looking ahead, Zhao called for a balanced approach that seizes the emerging opportunities in space computing while confronting technical challenges related to chip performance, inter-satellite communications, power supply, and thermal management.

"Space computing is an extension and integration of terrestrial industries into space. It represents a frontier initiative to build a global ubiquitous computing network and will provide strong support for the high-quality development of applications such as artificial intelligence," Li Jie, deputy director of the Cloud Computing and Big Data Research Institute at CAICT, said.

According to Li, the establishment of the committee will enhance synergy between the computing power and aerospace industrial chains, creating a full-factor-integrated ecosystem for the sector.

As the first professional coordination platform of its kind at the national level, the committee has brought together leading academicians, industry pioneers, research institutions and financial organizations. It will focus on five core areas to systematically build a technological system and industrial ecosystem for space computing.

The committee will spearhead key technological breakthroughs, focusing on onboard AI chips, inter-satellite laser communications, efficient thermal control and space-based photovoltaics, while fostering cross-disciplinary innovation to accelerate the formation of a core technology system.

Meanwhile, it will advance pre-research and formulation of standards covering space computing equipment, communication protocols, software platforms, power supply and evaluation certification, aiming to build a comprehensive standards system spanning hardware, software, networking and operations.

The committee also said it will explore and promote application scenarios — such as satellite AI agents, disaster emergency response, low-earth-orbit satellite internet and deep-space exploration — by soliciting innovative solutions and conducting pilot verifications to transform technological readiness into commercial viability.