Google, SpaceX in Talks to Explore Data Centers in Orbit, WSJ Reports

Alphabet’s Google is in talks with Elon Musk’s SpaceX for a rocket launch deal as the search giant looks to put orbital data centers in space, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the discussions.

Google is also in discussions about a potential deal with other rocket-launch companies, the report said.

SpaceX and Google did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comments.

A partnership with Google would mark the second time Musk made peace with an AI rival he has publicly criticized, ahead of a widely anticipated and crucial IPO for SpaceX.

Billionaire Musk helped launch OpenAI in 2015 as a counterweight to Google’s AI ambitions, after falling out with its co-founder Larry Page over AI safety. Now, SpaceX and Google find themselves racing toward the same frontier, vying to bring AI data centers to space.

Developing its space-based orbital data centers is one of the major drivers behind SpaceX’s initial public offering plans, as the endeavor is expected to be highly capital intensive and technologically challenging.

Last week, Anthropic agreed to use the full computing power of SpaceX’s Colossus 1 facility in Memphis and expressed interest in working with the rocket company to develop multiple gigawatts of space-based orbital data centers.

Google is pushing the space-based data center idea with Project Suncatcher, a research effort to network solar-powered satellites equipped with its Tensor Processing Units into an orbital AI cloud. The company plans an initial prototype launch with partner Planet Labs around 2027.

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(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

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