---
title: Google Sends Its First AI Chips to Orbit Next Week to Test Data Centers in Space
description: Google is sending its TPU chips to orbit on SpaceX's Transporter-18 to test data centers in space. It says the costs could work by the mid-2030s.
author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-09-24T23:57:06.387Z
updated: 2026-09-24T23:57:06.455Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/google-project-suncatcher-tpus-orbit-space-data-centers
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/google-suncatcher-solar-arrays-orbit-347138.jpg
categories: Artificial Intelligence
content_type: Analysis
region: Global
publication: Sovereign Magazine
access: members
schema_type: Article
---

Next week Google will put a handful of its own AI chips aboard SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare mission, its first attempt to learn whether the processors that run its AI can survive and operate in space. The chips are Tensor Processing Units, the custom silicon Google designs to train and run its models, and they will fly on a prototype satellite built with the Earth-imaging company Planet. "Can our TPUs survive and operate in space? Well, we're going to find out," Sundar Pichai, Google's chief executive, wrote in a post on X. "One small step for TPUs."

The satellite carries only a few chips, and its job is to record how they cope with the stress of launch and with the radiation and extreme temperatures of space. It is the first flight for Project Suncatcher, which Google announced last November to study whether satellites could one day run AI at scale.

## Solar Panels in Orbit Make Up to Eight Times More Power Than on Earth

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