US EditionGoogle Launches Project Suncatcher: AI Data Centers in Space
- On Tuesday, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, announced Project Suncatcher to deploy Tensor Processing Units on two prototype satellites by early 2027.
- With energy demand outstripping supply, Google plans a dawn-dusk sun-synchronous low-earth orbit using solar arrays to harness near-constant sunlight, which could be eight times more productive than Earth panels.
- To match terrestrial centers, Google’s Tensor Processing Units will link via free-space optical links to deliver tens of terabits per second in a cluster of 81 satellites at 650 kilometers.
- Radiation tests show Trillium-generation TPUs begin memory irregularities after 2 krad, while Google says launch costs must fall to $200/kg by the mid-2030s for space datacenters to match terrestrial energy costs.
- Partnering with Planet Labs, satellite imaging provider, Google will test hardware while SpaceX, Starcloud, Jeff Bezos and other startups pursue similar orbiting datacenter plans.
60 Articles
60 Articles
The accelerated growth of artificial intelligence has triggered the consumption of electricity and water to unprecedented levels. According to the International Energy Agency, data centers could double their energy expenditure by 2030, driven by training models such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude. Given this scenario, Google proposes a solution outside this world: send its AI chips into space.
Google launches 'Project Suncatcher' to harnessing solar power and cold background of space for AI
Ever since advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) came to the forefront, people have questioned their environmental cost. These technologies consume substantial power for operation and require vast quantities of water to cool the systems on which they run. As these technologies grow more popular, more questions are being raised about their sustainability. But it appears Google has found an innovative wa…
Google contemplates putting giant AI installations in low-earth orbit
Putting AI in space may sound like a sci-fi nightmare, but Google is thinking about the idea with a research endeavor called Project Suncatcher. The idea is to put power-hungry data centers into orbit on solar-powered satellites, so they can be powered by unlimited, clean energy available 24 hours a day. That would mitigate the nastiest aspects of AI cloud computing, like the use of power plants that spew huge amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.…
The CEO of Alphabet, a parent company of Google, made an unexpected announcement on Tuesday night. “Our processors are going into space!” said Sundar Pichai in his social network account X. The Suncatcher project, in which the company has been working for more than a year, aims to send from 2027 the first satellites with machine learning processors (machine learning), one of the legs of artificial intelligence (AI), to sit near the Sun and take …
'Great Idea Lol,' Says Elon Musk As Sundar Pichai Reveals Plan To Launch Google's AI Data Center Into Space - Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
A lighthearted exchange between Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) CEO Sundar Pichai and SpaceX chief Elon Musk followed Google's bold new plan to build the world's first AI data center in space. Google's Project Suncatcher Takes AI Beyond Earth On Tuesday, in a post on X, formerly Twitter, Pichai unveiled Project Suncatcher, an initiative to establish an AI data center in low Earth orbit powered directly by the sun. "Our TPUs are headed…
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