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China Building World's First Supercomputer In Space Using AI-Powered SatellitesThe "Three-Body Computing Constellation" could rival the most powerful ground-based supercomputers once fully deployed.

Quick Reads

• China launched 12 AI satellites to create the first space supercomputer network.
• The satellites can perform 744 trillion operations per second in orbit.
• Long March 2D rocket successfully deployed the satellites into their orbit.

China is building the world's first supercomputer network in space, for which it launched 12 AI-powered satellites last week. The state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation announced that the first of 2,800 satellites, part of its 'Star Computing' programme, were launched aboard a Long March 2D rocket and successfully deployed into orbit.

Each of the 12 satellites can process up to 744 trillion operations per second, having transfer rates up to 100 gigabits per second. The satellites are also equipped with a space-based AI model with eight billion parameters, capable of processing raw satellite data directly in orbit.

"The Long March 2D carrier rocket successfully sent the space computing satellite constellation into the predetermined orbit. The launch mission was a complete success," the agency said.

"The space computing satellite constellation is the first constellation of the 'Star Computing' program."

The "Three-Body Computing Constellation" will function as a space-based data processing network capable of computing vast amounts of information directly in orbit, without relying on any Earth-based infrastructure.

It will also be more powerful than any other supercomputer system on Earth, as it wouldn't need the costly cooling systems that Earth-based computing systems require. According to estimates by the International Energy Agency, data centres globally could consume more than 1,000 terawatt hours of electricity by 2026, which is equivalent to Japan's electricity use.

Currently, less than 10 per cent of the collected data by satellites is relayed to Earth, often with significant delays, according to a report in South China Morning Post. The new Chinese endeavour, however, aims to solve the limits of Earth-based data processing.

This is not the first instance of China announcing its ambitious plans for space. Earlier this year, Beijing unveiled plans to build the "Three Gorges Dam of Space" to harness limitless solar power.

This initiative involves deploying a massive solar array one kilometre wide in geostationary orbit, 36,000 kilometres above Earth, where it can collect solar energy uninterruptedly, unaffected by the planet's day-night cycle or weather conditions.

Donald Trump urged to target ‘lazy patent expansion’ in US drug bill push

Generics maker Sandoz says president should focus on tactic of ‘evergreening’ pricier products in his drive to lower costs

The chief executive of one of the world’s largest generic drugmakers has called on Donald Trump to tackle “lazy patent expansion” to cut the US drug bill, as the US president pushes to lower medicine prices for Americans. 

Richard Saynor, chief executive of Switzerland’s Sandoz, said he backed the intention of the administration’s “most favoured nation” policy — where it is seeking to cut prescription drug prices to the lowest level paid by other rich countries — but said more focus was needed on the plight of generic medicines, which make up 90 per cent of those used in the US.

Generic drugs, produced after a patent expires, are usually about 80 per cent cheaper than the branded versions. The US pays less for generic medicines than many European countries because of a concentration of buyers, leading to a situation where many drugmakers stop supplying the medicines, creating shortages. 

Saynor said branded drugmakers — also known as originators or innovators — had in the past decade doubled the number of patents they filed to protect their intellectual property, leading to lengthy and risky court battles for generics makers that delay the availability of their cheaper products. 

“At the moment, there is very little risk” for originators that are “evergreening” their products — the practice of making minor adjustments to a drug in order to secure new patents. “If you’re an innovator, you’re getting rewarded for making it harder and harder. And [patent] offices don’t get rewarded for revoking patents. They get paid for filing. So again, you have a system that is rewarding more and more patents.” 

Trump said last week he planned to cut drug prices “almost immediately by 30 per cent to 80 per cent”. The US paid about 3.2 times more for branded drugs than other developed countries in 2022, according to research by RAND Healthcare.

Trump signed an executive order that would give price targets to drug manufacturers and cut out intermediaries, allowing patients to buy medicines directly. He also said the US trade representative and Department of Commerce should probe countries that only allowed market access after significant price discounts. 

The administration has not yet planned any big changes to the generics market in the US. But the prospect of tariffs on pharmaceuticals, which are being investigated as part of a so-called Section 232 probe into whether imports threaten national security, would hit the generics industry hardest because they have thinner margins and are often reliant on manufacturing in India. 

Saynor said the administration should bring back a reward for generic drugmakers that gave them six months exclusivity after they launched the first generic version of a medicine, which helped compensate for the legal risk they are taking. 

He said branded drugmakers had created so-called authorised generics to capture this benefit themselves and used “patent thickets” to make it an “extremely expensive and complicated process to bring a product to the market”. 

Saynor also criticised the system of rebates that keeps gross prices high in the US, because many intermediaries, known as pharmacy benefit managers, profit from a system of discounts. He said the US was “addicted to rebates”, which had a “distorting effect” on pricing. 

Many essential medicines such as antibiotics and anaesthetics are generic. Saynor said it was important to have a conversation about “sustainability of supply”. “You know, we sell a pack of antibiotics for cheaper than a packet of M&Ms,” he added. “That’s offensive.”

Funding for ‘high-cost’ university courses to be cut in England

Education secretary says top-up support for subjects including media must be scaled back in ‘challenging’ fiscal situation

Capital funding for higher education will be slashed from next year with support diverted from certain subjects including journalism and media studies towards lab-based courses in the latest blow to England’s cash-strapped universities.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson told the sector regulator on Monday that capital spending would be almost halved in 2025-26 to £84mn from a multiyear settlement equivalent to an annual allocation of £150mn.

The grant to help deliver high-cost subjects and access initiatives will be cut from £1.46bn to £1.35bn, Phillipson told the Office for Students.

An “extremely challenging fiscal” situation required compromises, Phillipson said, as she set out plans to target top-up funding for expensive courses in strategic sectors by removing support for media studies, journalism, publishing and information services.

Franchised providers will also be prevented from accessing student premiums under the plans.

The announcement comes less than a fortnight after the OFS warned that financial pressures had forced many providers to scale back planned capital investments, leaving some buildings at risk of becoming “unfit for purpose”.

Universities have warned that reforms to the graduate visa announced by the government last week will further exacerbate the financial crisis in higher education, as a growing number of providers cut courses and roll out redundancy programmes. 

Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the Russell Group of elite research universities, said the cuts were “another blow” to a sector already facing “stark financial challenges”.

“Universities across the country are making efficiencies, but many are already facing difficult decisions to protect their long-term futures,” he said, adding that immigration reforms would make it more difficult to attract high fee-paying international students.

“A further squeeze on funding will undermine their ability to support the government’s efforts to deliver the industrial strategy, improve public services and achieve economic growth,” he added.

Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, which represents the sector, said universities were already under “extraordinary financial pressure” in the face of declining international recruitment and rising employer national insurance costs.

“We need [the] government to work with us to stabilise the ship and put it back on an even keel. That is the opposite of what happened today,” she added.

Butter vs bullets: EU commissioner warns against funnelling farm funds to defence

EU farm chief Christophe Hansen says €387bn Common Agricultural Policy is vital for food security in 27-member bloc

The EU must not prioritise guns over butter in its defence spending spree and should refrain from redirecting funding reserved for farmers, the bloc’s agriculture commissioner has warned.

Christophe Hansen told the Financial Times that an increase in military expenditure should not come at the expense of the bloc’s €387bn Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which accounts for a third of the EU seven-year budget.

“It is difficult to build a continent on an empty stomach,” Hansen said. “The current geopolitical situation shows us very clearly how important food security is in order to be less vulnerable to blackmail from third countries.”

Governments have started negotiations with the European Commission and the European parliament over the next trillion-euro budget, which runs from 2028. Brussels has put forward a radical overhaul that could see some current funds, including CAP, merged into one pot that would allow capitals to redeploy monies towards new priorities such as defence.

The commission is also bracing for a fight with member states over increasing national contributions to the budget as interest payments on the bloc’s unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic loans could eat up a fifth of annual spending.

The idea of pooling the CAP budget into a single fund along with regional spending programmes has met fierce resistance from the farming community.

The EU’s biggest farming lobby group Copa Cogeca said that it had prompted “unanimous concern across the agricultural sector” and that Brussels should also increase the CAP budget and index it to inflation.

Countries with vocal agricultural sectors, such as Ireland, have indicated that they would oppose a single fund if it involves the CAP.

Hansen said a single pot could mean “more synergies and that could be beneficial” but that it was “too early” to say what the size of the CAP would be, as member states had not agreed the level of their contributions.

He added that “we need a specific, commensurate budget for agriculture” and that “additional requirements”, such as for cutting emissions or improving biodiversity on farms “should come with additional financing”.

The agriculture sector has complained that Brussels has placed too many environmental demands on them in order to access CAP funding, which is currently doled out on a per hectare basis but with certain conditions attached.

Violent farmers’ protests last year led the commission to water down many of the conditions such as compulsory crop rotation and maintaining non-productive features such as hedges which support wildlife.

This week the commission proposed to exempt organic farmers from several of the environmental demands and make compliance less demanding.

Fears of being undercut by cheaper and less rigorously monitored imports was also a central complaint of last year’s demonstrators. Hansen said production standards were non-negotiable in the event of any EU-US trade deal, describing it as “politically risky” to open up the EU market to livestock raised using growth hormones.

He added, however, that there had been a boom in interest in the sector for deeper trade relations with countries such as Japan and that despite the EU’s high standards other countries were still keen to do business.

“The European market is a very strong market [and] is able maybe to pay better prices than other markets,” he said.