Google in talks with SpaceX for Suncatcher orbital data center project

May 12 (Reuters) – Alphabet’s Google on Tuesday said it has been in discussions with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and others regarding future launches for its Project Suncatcher, an orbital data center project.

Google is pushing the space-based data center idea with Project Suncatcher, a research effort to network solar-powered satellites equipped with its Tensor Processing Units into an orbital AI cloud. The company plans an initial prototype launch with partner Planet Labs around 2027.

A partnership with Google would mark the second time Musk made peace with an AI rival he has publicly criticized, ahead of a widely anticipated and crucial initial public offering for SpaceX.

Billionaire Musk helped launch OpenAI in 2015 as a counterweight to Google’s AI ambitions, after falling out with its co-founder Larry Page over AI safety. Now, SpaceX and Google find themselves racing toward the same frontier, vying to bring AI data centers to space.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The Wall Street Journal had reported the development earlier on Tuesday.

Developing its space-based orbital data centers is one of the major drivers behind SpaceX’s IPO plans, as the endeavor is expected to be highly capital intensive and technologically challenging.

Last week, Anthropic agreed to use the full computing power of SpaceX’s Colossus 1 facility in Memphis and expressed interest in working with the rocket company to develop multiple gigawatts of space-based orbital data centers.

(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City and Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Maju Samuel)