Alphabet today launching AI chips into space on SpaceX rocket

Investing.com -- Alphabet plans to send its artificial intelligence chips into orbit Thursday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of efforts to develop data centers in space.

The launch is set for 11:15 a.m. PT from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California.

SpaceX will carry Planet Labs satellites during the uncrewed Transporter-18 mission, including a solar-powered prototype equipped with Google's tensor processing units. The mission represents the first in-orbit test for Alphabet's Project Suncatcher, an initiative the company first announced in November 2025.

Alphabet said Project Suncatcher aims to explore whether space could host machine learning infrastructure. The company plans to develop solar-powered AI computing infrastructure designed to operate continuously in space.

Alphabet holds a stake in SpaceX valued at over $82 billion.

In low Earth orbit, satellites can access near-constant sunlight and generate up to eight times more solar power than on Earth, according to Alphabet. The company expects to eventually link multiple satellite constellations to manage larger AI workloads while in orbit.

Alphabet has tested its tensor processing units running AI workloads at a University of California at Davis facility, but has not yet determined how the chips will perform in low Earth orbit conditions.

SpaceX has announced plans to build and launch its own orbital data centers using satellite swarms developed in Redmond, Washington. The satellites will be equipped with graphics processing units and solar arrays SpaceX plans to produce with Tesla.

Earlier this year, Elon Musk said data centers in space would become the cheapest way to train AI within two to three years. SpaceX Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell said at a September event that the company will deploy supercompute capabilities in space in 2027.

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