South Korea's Innospace will collaborate with the UAE's Madari Space to put data centers in space.

The pair signed a memorandum of understanding at the Dubai Air Show in the UAE, but the details of the agreement are vague.

The announcement states that the two will jointly identify launch service opportunities and discuss whether to integrate their technology and business models for a space-based data platform.

Innospace CEO Kim Soo-jong said that the partnership would leverage “the combination of Innospace’s integrated service capabilities and Madari Space’s regional network and space data center development expertise.”

Both Innospace and Madari are somewhat nascent ventures. The former was founded in 2017 as a space rocket startup but only received a license for its first orbital launch attempt in October, and Madari, which has not yet sent data centers into space, will attempt a pilot launch in 2026.

Despite concerns about the feasibility of the endeavour, Madari is only one of many other companies attempting to put data centers in space.

Other competitors include Axiom Space, Starcloud (previously Lumen Orbit), NTT, Ramon.Space, and Sophia Space, to name but a few.

Leaders of tech giants have also openly speculated, and in some cases, committed to sending data centers into space.

In November, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk claimed that the company’s next-generation V3 Starlink satellites could serve as a foundation for eventual data centers, and Google announced plans to launch TPU AI chips into space by early 2027.

Last month, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said that there would be gigawatt data centers in space in more than ten years, whilst former Google CEO Eric Schmidt this year said that he acquired rocket company Relativity Space to put data centers in orbit.