Google’s Project Suncatcher | 07 Nov 2025

Why in News?  

Tech giant Google has announced Project Suncatcher, an ambitious research initiative to develop AI-powered data centres in space. 

Key Points 

• About Project Suncatcher: 
  • Project Suncatcher envisions solar-powered satellites hosting AI data centres in space to reduce Earth’s energy and water consumption used for cooling terrestrial facilities. 
  • These orbiting data centres will use free-space optical links to transfer data at speeds of tens of terabits per second, forming a distributed network similar to satellite internet constellations like Starlink. 
  • Google plans to launch two prototype satellites by early 2027 to test its space-based TPU (Tensor Processing Unit) hardware. 
• Rationale for Space-Based AI Centres: 
  • AI data centres consume enormous electricity and water for cooling — a growing environmental concern as AI adoption increases globally. 
  • In space, solar panels are up to 8 times more efficient than on Earth, providing a continuous and clean energy supply. 
• How It Works: 
  • The satellites will rely on solar energy and optical data transmission to function as a cohesive high-performance computing network. 
  • TPUs (Trillium v6e) are being tested for radiation resistance and performance in extreme conditions.