Kamal Ghorui
Google is in talks with Elon Musk-owned SpaceX for a rocket-launch deal to put orbital data centres in space, reports the Wall Street Journal citing people familiar with the discussions. Data centres in space have been emerging as a potential solution to traditional data centres that require more energy. The search engine giant is also in talks with other rocket launch companies, a source told the publication. The deal, if formalized, will put the two companies “in partnership as they gear up to compete on orbital data centers, an unproven technology that SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk has said is the next frontier for his rocket company,” the report said. While Google and SpaceX are betting on space data centres, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has a different view.
When OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called space data centres ‘ridiculous’
Both Google CEO Sundar Pichai and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk have previously talked about plans to build space data centers. In a Fox News interview last year, Pichai said: “We’ll send tiny racks of machines and have them in satellites, test them out, and then start scaling from there”. “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 further added. Elon Musk has previously said that space will be the cheapest place for AI data centres in the next three years. However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman doesn’t agree with either of the tech leaders. During his India visit earlier this year, Altman said the idea of putting data centres in space is ‘ridiculous’. Speaking at a New Delhi event, he said: “I honestly think the idea with the current landscape of putting data centers in space is ridiculous”.Stating that orbital data centers could “make sense someday”, he said: “Space is great for a lot of things. Orbital data centers are not something that’s going to matter at scale this decade.”
Google to launch prototype satellites by 2027
In 2025, Google announced that it plans to launch prototype satellites by 2027 as part of a moonshot initiative called Project Suncatcher. The search engine giant is working with Planet Labs, to build those satellites.Notably, Google has also been an early investor in Space and currently owns 6.1% of the company.
