Alphabet, which owns Google, has launched its own AI chips into space on Thursday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Well, this takes the idea of space-based data centers a step closer to reality. The launch took place at 11:15 am PT from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully deployed all its payloads by 1 pm local time.
SpaceX launches Google’s AI chips into orbit in a push for space-based data centers
SpaceX sees space-based supercomputers as the next step in AI infrastructure, touting “infinite real estate.” It believes building data centers in orbit could provide more room for expansion, while also avoiding backlash faced by data centers on Earth. During its uncrewed Transporter-18 mission, SpaceX will carry Planet Labs satellites, including a solar-powered prototype equipped with Google’s tensor processing units (TPUs).
The Thursday launch marks the first in-orbit test for Alphabet’s Project Suncatcher, a “moonshot” initiative Google first revealed in November 2025. The company plans to develop reliable, solar-powered AI computing infrastructure that can operate continuously in space.
“Our team has confirmed contact with the satellite, and it is operating as expected,” Travis Beals, senior director of Project Suncatcher, wrote in a blog post following the launch. The top executive is calling this the first step in a long-term research effort, “exploring whether space could one day host scalable machine learning infrastructure.”
The first in-orbit test for Alphabet’s Project Suncatcher
Alphabet is a major investor in SpaceX. The two companies are close partners despite competing in the AI race. Alphabet’s stake in SpaceX is currently valued at over $82 billion. In low Earth orbit, satellites can “access near-constant sunlight, generating up to eight times more solar power than on Earth,” Alphabet said in the post. The company eventually also plans to connect multiple satellite networks to handle larger AI workloads while in orbit.
Alphabet has already tested its TPUs running AI workloads at a facility at the University of California, Davis. However, it is still unclear how the chips will perform in the harsh conditions of low Earth orbit. Meanwhile, SpaceX has also announced that it plans to build and launch its own orbital data centers using swarms of satellites the company develops in Redmond, Washington. They will be equipped with GPUs and solar panels that it plans to produce with Tesla.
SpaceX also plans to launch its own orbital data centers
Elon Musk, earlier this year, said that data centers in space would be the cheapest way to train AI. This will be “true within two years, maybe three at the least.” SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell said at an event in September that the company will deploy supercomputers in space in 2027.
The Transporter-18 flight was the second major launch in a single day for SpaceX. Earlier that day, the company began transporting astronauts from Florida to the International Space Station for NASA. This marked the beginning of a six-month mission in orbit.
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