Google’s “moonshot” aspirations to increase its AI footprint are taking up a extra literal which means.
CEO Sundar Pichai stated in a Fox Information interview in December Google will quickly start building of AI information facilities in house. The tech large introduced Mission Suncatcher late final yr, with the aim of discovering extra environment friendly methods to energy energy-guzzling facilities, on this case with solar energy.
“One of our moonshots is to, how do we one day have data centers in space so that we can better harness the energy from the sun that is 100 trillion times more energy than what we produce on all of Earth today?” Pichai stated.
Google will take its first steps in setting up extraterrestrial information facilities in early 2027 in partnership with satellite tv for pc imagery agency Planet, launching two pilot satellites to check the {hardware} in Earth’s orbit. In accordance with Pichai, space-based information facilities would be the new normal within the close to future.
“But there’s no doubt to me that a decade or so away we’ll be viewing it as a more normal way to build data centers,” he stated.
The information heart house race
Google isn’t the one firm seeking to the skies for a solution to bettering information heart effectivity. Earlier this yr, SpaceX sought permission to launch as many as 1 million satellites into Earth’s orbit, a part of a much bigger aim of launching a solar-powered satellite tv for pc community to “accommodate the explosive development of knowledge calls for pushed by AI,” in keeping with a submitting with the Federal Communications Fee.
In December 2025, Y Combinator and Nvidia-backed startup Starcloud despatched its first AI-equipped satellite tv for pc to house. CEO and cofounder Philip Johnston predicted extraterrestrial information facilities will produce 10 occasions decrease carbon emissions than their earthbound counterparts, even bearing in mind the emissions from launch.
Whereas the price of satellites used to check AI {hardware} in house has decreased drastically, placing extraterrestrial information heart improvement inside attain, the price of constructing these solar-powered facilities remains to be an unknown, significantly as earthbound information facilities are anticipated to require greater than $5 trillion in capital expenditures by 2030, in keeping with an April 2025 McKinsey report.
Google, which catapulted itself again into the AI front-runner dialog with the latest launch of Gemini 3, is one in all a number of main hyperscalers pouring cash into information facilities to increase its computing capabilities. Alphabet, Google’s mother or father firm, stated in February it might spend $175 billion to $185 billion this yr in capital expenditures, primarily to construct out AI infrastructure.
Knowledge heart moonshots come again to Earth
All of the whereas, hypothesis of an AI bubble threatens to create an oversupply of knowledge facilities, which may render the info heart house race a harmful over-investment. Furthermore, with the know-how shortly growing, there’s a threat information facilities beneath building now may have out-of-date gear by the point they’re accomplished.
Hyperscalers, together with Alphabet, are taking an excellent better threat by financing their AI buildouts with debt. In 2025, Alphabet, Amazon, Oracle, Meta and Microsoft issued $121 billion in new debt via bonds. That’s in comparison with $40 billion in new debt in 2020.
“The stakes are high,” the McKinsey report stated. “Overinvesting in data center infrastructure risks stranding assets, while underinvesting means falling behind.”
Harnessing photo voltaic power to energy information facilities has develop into more and more interesting amid rising considerations in regards to the sustainability of increasing AI compute, which requires an exorbitant quantity of energy. A December 2024 U.S. Division of Power report on home information heart utilization discovered information heart load has tripled up to now 10 years and should double or triple once more by 2028. These information facilities consumed greater than 4% of the nation’s electrical energy in 2023, and are predicted to eat as much as 12% of U.S. electrical energy by 2028, in keeping with the report.
Google alone has greater than doubled its electrical energy consumption on information heart use up to now 5 years, utilizing 30.8 million megawatt-hours of electrical energy final yr in comparison with 14.4 million in 2020, when it started particularly monitoring information heart power consumption, in keeping with its newest sustainability report launched in June 2025.
Google has labored to scale back the power wanted to energy its rising information facilities, reporting it lowered its information heart power emissions by 12% in 2024, regardless of an growing footprint. Nevertheless, considerations in regards to the feasability and timeline of extraterrestrial information heart enlargement stay.
Amazon Internet Providers CEO Matt Garman poured chilly water on information facilities in house at a tech convention in San Francisco in February: “I don’t know if you’ve seen a rack of servers lately: They’re heavy. And last I checked, humanity has yet to build a permanent structure in space. So … maybe.”
Others have warned about future sustainability considerations of an AI buildout increasing past Earth, indicating the AI house race don’t occur for many years.
“There is still much we don’t know about the environmental impact of AI, but some of the data we do have is concerning,” Golestan Radwan, United Nations Surroundings Programme chief digital officer, stated in a 2024 assertion following this system’s notice warning of the environmental impression of AI infrastructure enlargement. “We need to make sure the net effect of AI on the planet is positive before we deploy the technology at scale.”
A model of this story was printed on Fortune.com on Dec. 1, 2025.
Extra on extraterrestrial information facilities:
- Google’s plan to place information facilities within the sky faces 1000’s of (little) issues: house junk
- Elon Musk is pushing to construct information facilities in house. However they received’t remedy AI’s energy issues anytime quickly
- AI is working out of energy. House received’t be an escape hatch for many years
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
