Mastercard Teams Up with Madari Space to Explore Orbital Data Centre Potential

Mastercard has signed an MoU with Madari Space, the Abu Dhabi startup working on space‑based data processing, to look into how orbital infrastructure might help future digital systems cope with rising demand. It’s the sort of partnership that pops up more often these days as data volumes shoot through the roof and traditional data centres run into all sorts of physical and environmental headaches. I remember chatting with a founder at an Arageek event who joked that running a data centre on Earth is “a bit of a faff” already — so sending part of the workload into orbit doesn’t sound quite as wild as it once did.

The idea behind space-based data centres is fairly simple: they could offer better energy efficiency, greater resilience and, in theory, smoother performance for governments and enterprises that are increasingly reliant on AI and other advanced technologies. Madari Space says it’s building secure, dedicated orbital data centres designed to add extra layers of protection beyond terrestrial weak points. As founder and CEO Shareef Al Romaithi put it, the company aims to redefine sovereign data management and sees Mastercard’s cybersecurity experience as an important piece of the puzzle.

Mastercard, for its part, stressed that it wants to back innovations capable of strengthening the wider digital ecosystem. J.K. Khalil, who leads the company’s East Arabia division, said the collaboration aligns with Mastercard’s focus on continuity, security and sustainability — something the firm has been pushing hard in recent years. And believe it or not, space is becoming part of that conversation more often than people expect; the whole sector feels like it’s moving from sci-fi to infrastructure planning.

I reckon the interesting bit here is how quickly these space-tech ambitions are being folded into mainstream digital strategy. On the flip side, it’s still early days, and many of these concepts will take years to prove themselves at scale… but the momentum is spot on. If anything, it shows how MENA startups like Madari are carving out niches that once seemed completely out of reach. One founder told me recently that the region is “thinking in orbits now,” and while that made me chuckle, he wasn’t wrong.

For now, the two companies will simply explore potential use cases and see where the technology can realistically go. And yes, the sustainability angle is likely to grow louder, especially as governments push greener solutions and enterprises look for energy-efficient alternatives. Whether orbital data centres become the norm or remain a specialised tool, this collaboration reflects a wider shift toward future-ready, resilient digital infrastructure — and it’s definately one space worth watching, you know?

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