Google\u2019s \u201cmoonshot\u201d aspirations to expand its AI footprint are taking on a more literal meaning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
CEO Sundar Pichai said in a Fox News interview<\/a> in December Google will soon begin construction of AI data centers in space. The tech giant announced Project Suncatcher<\/a> late last year, with the goal of finding more efficient ways to power energy-guzzling data centers, in this case with solar power.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of our moonshots is to, how do we one day have data centers in space so that we can better harness the energy from the sun that is 100 trillion times more energy than what we produce on all of Earth today?\u201d Pichai said.<\/p>\n Google will take its first steps in constructing extraterrestrial data centers in early 2027 in partnership with satellite imagery firm Planet, launching two pilot satellites to test the hardware in Earth\u2019s orbit. According to Pichai, space-based data centers will be the new standard in the near future. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt to me that a decade or so away we\u2019ll be viewing it as a more normal way to build data centers,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The data center space race<\/p>\n Google isn\u2019t the only company looking to the skies for an answer to improving data center efficiency. Earlier this year, SpaceX<\/a> sought permission to launch as many as 1 million satellites<\/a> into Earth\u2019s orbit, part of a bigger goal of launching a solar-powered satellite network to \u201caccommodate the explosive growth of data demands driven by AI,\u201d according to a filing with the Federal Communications Commission.<\/p>\n In December 2025, Y Combinator\u2013 and Nvidia-backed startup Starcloud sent its first AI-equipped satellite to space<\/a>. Cofounder and CEO Philip Johnston predicted extraterrestrial data centers will produce 10-fold lower<\/a> carbon emissions than their earthbound counterparts, even taking into account the emissions from launch.<\/p>\n While the cost of satellites used to test AI hardware in space has decreased drastically<\/a>, putting extraterrestrial data center development within reach, the cost of building these solar-powered centers is still an unknown, particularly as earthbound data centers are expected to require more than $5 trillion in capital expenditures by 2030, according to an April 2025 McKinsey<\/a> report<\/a>.<\/p>\n Google, which catapulted itself back into the AI front-runner conversation with the recent release of Gemini 3<\/a>, is one of several major hyperscalers pouring money into data centers to expand its computing capabilities. Alphabet, Google\u2019s parent company, said in February it would devote $175 billion to $185 billion<\/a> this year to capital expenditures, primarily to build out AI infrastructure.<\/p>\n Data center moonshots come back to Earth<\/p>\n All the while, the possibility of an AI bubble and attendant oversupply of data centers could render the data center space race a dangerous overinvestment. Moreover, with the technology quickly developing, there\u2019s a risk data centers under construction now could have out-of-date equipment by the time they are completed.<\/p>\n Hyperscalers, including Alphabet, are taking an even greater risk by financing their AI build-outs with debt<\/a>. In 2025, Alphabet, Amazon<\/a>,\u00a0Oracle<\/a>, Meta<\/a>, and Microsoft<\/a> issued $121 billion in new debt through bonds. That\u2019s compared with $40 billion in new debt in 2020.<\/p>\n \u201cThe stakes are high,\u201d the McKinsey report said. \u201cOverinvesting in data center infrastructure risks stranding assets, while underinvesting means falling behind.\u201d<\/p>\n Harnessing solar energy to power data centers has become increasingly appealing amid growing concerns about the sustainability of expanding AI compute, which requires an exorbitant amount of power. A December 2024 U.S. Department of Energy report<\/a> on domestic data center usage found data center load has tripled in the past 10 years and may double or triple again by 2028. These data centers consumed more than 4% of the country\u2019s electricity in 2023, and are predicted to consume up to 12% of U.S. electricity by 2028, according to the report.<\/p>\n Google alone has more than doubled its electricity consumption via data centers in the past five years, using 30.8 million megawatt-hours of electricity last year compared with 14.4 million in 2020, when it began specifically tracking data center energy consumption, according to its latest sustainability report<\/a> released in June 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n Google has worked to reduce the energy needed to power its growing data center use, reporting it reduced its data center energy emissions by 12% in 2024, despite an increasing footprint. However, concerns about the feasibility and timeline of extraterrestrial data center expansion remain.<\/p>\n Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman poured cold water on data centers in space<\/a> at a tech conference in San Francisco in February: \u201cI don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve seen a rack of servers lately: They\u2019re heavy. And last I checked, humanity has yet to build a permanent structure in space. So \u2026 maybe.\u201d<\/p>\n Others have warned about future sustainability issues surrounding an AI build-out beyond Earth, indicating the AI space race wouldn\u2019t happen for decades<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is still much we don\u2019t know about the environmental impact of AI, but some of the data we do have is concerning,\u201d Golestan Radwan, United Nations Environment Program chief digital officer, said in a 2024 statement following the program\u2019s warning<\/a> about the environmental impact of AI infrastructure expansion. \u201cWe need to make sure the net effect of AI on the planet is positive before we deploy the technology at scale.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n A version of this story was published on Fortune.com on Dec. 1, 2025.<\/p>\n More on extraterrestrial data centers:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Google\u2019s \u201cmoonshot\u201d aspirations to expand its AI footprint are taking on a more literal meaning.\u00a0 CEO Sundar Pichai…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[9712,8023,246,106020,1711,61,4082,60,82,247],"class_list":{"0":"post-380408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-alphabet","9":"tag-data-centers","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-evergreen-refresh","12":"tag-google","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-infrastructure","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}