Project Suncatcher, a Google $GOOGL initiative revealed last November, is targeting the launch of two prototype satellites before early 2027 as the company pursues its own foothold in space-based computing. Planet Labs has been brought on as the satellite manufacturer for the project. "We'll send tiny racks of machines and have them in satellites, test them out, and then start scaling from there," Google CEO Sundar Pichai told Fox News in November. "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."
SpaceX has been moving to build out its orbital data-center business on multiple fronts. Regulatory filings earlier this year showed SpaceX seeking approval to orbit as many as one million satellites in support of the effort, and a deal disclosed last week commits the company to delivering 300 megawatts of computing power — backed by upward of 220,000 Nvidia $NVDA GPUs — to AI firm Anthropic. The Journal reported that the Anthropic deal also included the AI company signaling a desire to collaborate with SpaceX on putting data centers into orbit.
The broader market for orbital computing has drawn other entrants. Baiju Bhatt, co-founder of Robinhood, rebranded his space startup as Cowboy Space Corporation and raised $275 million to build orbital data centers powered by its own rockets. Bhatt has said he expects launch capacity to remain scarce over the next several years, which he cited as the reason for building rockets rather than relying on third-party providers. Cowboy Space is targeting its first rocket launch before the end of 2028, according to Bloomberg.
Advocates for the concept point to solar power as a way to free space-based facilities from the electricity and real-estate demands that constrain their ground-level counterparts, though significant technical hurdles have left a number of experts doubtful that the approach is workable.
