SpaceX set to launch Google AI chips into orbit in push toward space-based data centers

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Northrop Grumman's Mission Robotic Vehicle (MRV) and Mission Extension Pods (MEPs) launches from Space Force Station's Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on July 21, 2026.

Chandan Khanna | AFP | Getty Images

Alphabet plans to launch its homegrown AI chips into orbit on Thursday in a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, a step towards making data centers in space a reality.

The launch is scheduled for 11:15 am PT from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California's Santa Barbara County.

SpaceX has promoted supercomputers in space as the next frontier in artificial intelligence infrastructure, touting "infinite real estate" in orbit as a means of escaping the data center backlash on the ground. During the uncrewed Transporter-18 mission, SpaceX will carry Planet Labs satellites, including a solar-powered prototype equipped with Google's tensor processing units (TPUs).

It marks the first in-orbit test for Alphabet's Project Suncatcher, a "moonshot" initiative Google first revealed in November 2025. The company aims to develop reliable, solar-powered AI computing infrastructure that can operate continuously in space.

In a post announcing the launch plan, Alphabet said Project Suncatcher is a means of "exploring whether space could one day host scalable machine learning infrastructure."

Alphabet is a significant investor in SpaceX, which went public in June in a record IPO, and the businesses are close partners even as their AI divisions compete with one another. Alphabet's stake in SpaceX is currently valued at over $82 billion.

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In low Earth orbit, satellites can "access near-constant sunlight, generating up to eight times more solar power than on Earth," Alphabet said in the post. Eventually, they expect to be able to "link together multiple constellations of satellites, allowing them to manage larger AI workloads while in orbit."

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