Google CEO Sundar Pichai says we’re just a decade away from a new normal of extraterrestrial data centers

Google’s “moonshot” aspirations to expand its AI footprint are taking on a more literal meaning. 

CEO Sundar Pichai said in a Fox News interview in December Google will soon begin construction of AI data centers in space. The tech giant announced Project Suncatcher late last year, with the goal of finding more efficient ways to power energy-guzzling centers, in this case with solar power.

“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 said.

Google will take its first steps in constructing extraterrestrial data centers in early 2027 in partnership with satellite imagery firm Planet, launching two pilot satellites to test the hardware in Earth’s orbit. According to Pichai, space-based data centers will be the new standard in the near 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 said. 

The data center space race

Google isn’t the only company looking to the skies for an answer to improving data center efficiency. Earlier this year, SpaceX sought permission to launch as many as 1 million satellites into Earth’s orbit, part of a bigger goal of launching a solar-powered satellite network to “accommodate the explosive growth of data demands driven by AI,” according to a filing with the Federal Communications Commission.

In December 2025, Y Combinator and Nvidia-backed startup Starcloud........

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