SpaceX will strap Google's tensor processing units to Planet Labs satellites and fire them into orbit. The stated goal is space-based data centers. The actual result will be retail traders convincing themselves this means their $47 portfolio of fractional shares just became a space tech play.
Google builds chips that run AI models. Those chips currently sit in data centers on Earth where they consume electricity and generate heat like a normal business expense. Now Google wants them in orbit where they can consume rocket fuel and generate absolutely nothing for shareholders except a vague sense that innovation is happening.
Planet Labs operates imaging satellites. They take pictures of the Earth. They do not need tensor processing units in space to do this. They need them because Google asked nicely and probably wrote a check. SpaceX gets paid to launch the hardware. Everyone involved has a revenue stream except the person reading this headline and thinking it means cloud computing just went vertical.
The technical justification is latency reduction for AI processing. The practical justification is that tech companies spent the last decade telling investors that AI would change everything and now they need to literally launch it into space to keep the narrative alive.
Space-based data centers solve a problem nobody has by creating problems nobody wants. Cooling systems that work in zero gravity. Repairs that require a rocket launch. Hardware that costs ten thousand dollars per pound just to escape the atmosphere. But sure, your chatbot will load three milliseconds faster.
This is what happens when companies run out of Earth-based ways to burn money. They look up.
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