Shanghai launches "Star Hub Project": Create distributed space computing power to achieve on-demand computing

Kuai Technology News on July 19, according to media reports, at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, the first constellation of Shanghai’s iconic space digital infrastructure project “Star Hub Project” was officially unveiled. The plan means "core of the starry sky and general hub of computing power". It is a benchmark project for the space computing power industry that Shanghai focuses on and is positioned as a flagship space computing power constellation project. The overall deployment is promoted in three steps: the engineering verification phase launches 2 computing stars and 12 edge computing stars; the commercial deployment phase is expanded to 50 computing stars and 100 edge computing stars; the commercial operation phase completes the construction of a thousand-star network. The "Xingshu Project" is developed and operated by Fudan University and Shanghai Xingshu Tianshu, with Fudan University undertaking the underlying technical support for a full set of space-based large models. Four academicians, Jin Yaqiu, Wang Jianyu, Chu Junhao and Li Jun, serve as chief scientists. The first constellation released this time adopts a minimalist star cluster layout, consisting of a central computing star, Fuxi meteorological star and real-time remote sensing star. Samsung achieves interconnection through inter-satellite laser links, forming an independent closed-loop minimum computing power verification unit. All data collection, AI inference and analysis are completed on-orbit, eliminating the need to download massive amounts of raw remote sensing data, greatly improving response efficiency. The plan focuses on two core application scenarios: First, it provides on-demand, real-time, quantifiable distributed space computing power services, and opens time-sharing and on-orbit computing power leasing to governments, energy, shipping, finance and scientific research institutions. Ground enterprises can encrypt massive spatio-temporal data and upload it to the constellation to complete AI training and fusion computing, and flexibly choose short-term inference or long-term computing power packages, significantly reducing the cost of ground computer room construction and computing power procurement. The second is to support all-area space-based intelligent integrated scene services. Relying on Fuxi's self-developed industry-specific large models such as Fuxi, Dayu, and microwave vision, it can automatically generate standardized intelligence products such as meteorological warnings, disaster monitoring, port shipping, and power grid inspections. It can provide regular real-time space remote sensing support for departments such as emergency response, meteorology, natural resources, and energy, effectively reducing the investment in manual interpretation and ground computing power. It is expected that the implementation of the "Star Hub Plan" will accelerate the agglomeration of Shanghai's space computing industry, drive more than 100 upstream and downstream supporting companies within five years, and help the annual output value of related industries exceed 100 billion yuan.