Google Is Taking a Major Step Forward Toward Space-Based AI Data Centers

One of the biggest arguments against data centers is how much power they require -- and whether the power grid can reasonably accommodate them. Data centers are estimated to consume 4% to 5% of electricity in the U.S. today, but that's expected to increase to as much as 17% by 2030, according to data from the Electric Power Research Institute.

Blue Origin and Space Exploration Technologies are among the companies that have proposed orbital data centers -- harnessing the power of solar energy to avoid tapping into Earth's resources. But it's Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) that is taking the first concrete step by a major tech company toward that goal. On Oct. 1, the company is planning to launch an experimental satellite outfitted with Google's tensor processing units (TPUs) and solar panels. The launch, which is part of the company's Project Suncatcher, is part of the company's effort to eventually put data centers in orbit to run artificial intelligence programs.

The satellite, which will be put into orbit from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, will have the computing power of one data center server and operate on 1 kilowatt of solar power to answer simple AI queries. The satellite is expected to operate for a year.

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