Google, a multinational technology Corporation, disclosed on Tuesday, it has been in talks with SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, and others concerning launches in the future for its Project Suncatcher.
Project Suncatcher is an orbital data center project.
Google, specialised in search engine technology, cloud computing, online advertising, is pushing the data center idea, which is space-based, with Project Suncatcher, a research effort to network solar-powered satellites equipped with its Tensor Processing Units into an orbital AI cloud.
Google, the primary subsidiary of the parent holding company, Alphabet Inc, intends an initial mock-up launch with partner Planet Labs around 2027.
A collaboration with the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Company will mean the second time American businessman, Musk, made peace with an AI rival he had criticized publicly.
Musk, Tesla Owner, in 2015, helped launch OpenAI as a counterweight to the AI ambitions of Google after falling out with its co-founder Larry Page over the safety of AI.
Now, both Companies, SpaceX and Google, have themselves running towards the same goal, pursuing to bring AI data centres to space.
Building its space-based orbital data centers is one of the main forces propelling the IPO Plan of SpaceX, a move expected to be intensely capital intensive, as well as, challenging technology-wise.
Earlier, Anthropic accepted to make use of the full computing power of SpaceX’s Colossus 1 facility in Memphis, and, made known its interest in partnering with the rocket company to develop multiple gigawatts of space-based orbital data centers.
Photo: Google, SpaceX
