Alphabet sent its tensor processing units, or TPUs, its AI accelerator chips, into low Earth orbit on October 2 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The mission marked the first in-orbit test of Project Suncatcher.

Travis Beals, the project’s senior director, said the team had made contact with the satellite and that it was operating as expected.

Google described Suncatcher as a moonshot to put AI in space and explore a scalable space-based AI infrastructure system. Planet, a San Francisco-based satellite imaging company, said it would build and operate the space platform for the project.

Google said TPUs made AI workloads 3x more carbon-efficient, which could matter in orbit, where power and cooling are limited.

The test came as multiple companies were exploring orbital data centers. Alphabet still has to show that its chips can withstand radiation and other in-orbit constraints before any larger-scale deployment.

🔗 Source: CNBC

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