Google Wants to Send Data Centers to Space—and Just Launched an Experimental Satellite to Test Whether Its Ambitious Plan Will Work

On October 1, Google sent a refrigerator-size test satellite to low-Earth orbit, taking a major step in its goal of putting data centers in space. The tech giant aims to put the infrastructure to run its artificial intelligence models there so the systems can be powered by sunlight. Although far from achieving this goal, the company’s current test—part of Project Suncatcher—will assess how Google’s hardware performs in the harsh conditions of space.

The experimental satellite, which hitched a ride on a SpaceX rocket, was developed in partnership with the satellite imagery company Planet. It’s carrying four custom chips called tensor processing units (TPUs), which have the computing power of one server in a data center, report Kate Conger and Cade Metz for the New York Times. (The largest data centers contain more than one million servers.) The TPU chips will run for 15-minute stretches, during which they can run Google’s Gemini A.I. and process short queries. Then, they’ll shut down to cool off.

Eventually, the company wants to launch fleets of satellites, each carrying a dozen TPU chips and communicating with one another and with Earth via lasers. The spacecraft clusters will serve as space-based data centers. The idea of building data centers far above the planet’s surface isn’t unique to Google.

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and others have proposed the concept as A.I.’s need for computing power grows in the face of community opposition and a strained grid. In 2024, data centers accounted for about 1.5 percent of the world’s electricity consumption—and the percentage might double by 2030, according to estimates by the International Energy Agency. In space, these energy monsters can take full advantage of the sun.

The near-constant sunlight there can provide up to eight times more solar power than on Earth, according to the statement. Some companies want to bring more sunlight to our planet’s surface to provide solar power on demand. The startup Reflect Orbital, for instance, received federal approval in July to build and launch a demonstration satellite with a mirror that can beam sunlight to targeted areas on Earth.

However, operating a data center in space comes with many challenges. Advanced computer processing causes chips to heat up. In Earth-based facilities, chips are cooled using water and fans.