Google CEO Sundar Pichai says we’re just a decade away from space-based data centers becoming the new normal

(SeaPRwire) –   Google’s “moonshot” ambitions to grow its AI footprint are taking on a far more literal meaning.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai shared during a December Fox News interview that the company will soon begin construction of AI data centers in space. The tech giant first announced Project Suncatcher late last year, with the goal of developing more efficient ways to power its energy-guzzling facilities, using solar energy for this initiative.

“One of our moonshot projects is figuring out how to one day host data centers in space, so we can better harness the sun’s energy— which delivers 100 trillion times more power than the total amount we generate across Earth today,” Pichai explained.

Google will take its first steps toward building extraterrestrial data centers in early 2027 in partnership with satellite imagery firm Planet, launching two prototype satellites to test their hardware in Earth’s orbit. Pichai noted that space-based data centers will become the new standard in the near future.

“But I have no doubt that in roughly a decade from now, we’ll look back on this as a far more standard way to build data centers,” he said.

The race for space-based data centers

Google is not the only company turning to the skies to improve data center efficiency. Earlier this year, SpaceX filed a request with the Federal Communications Commission for approval to launch up to 1 million satellites into Earth’s orbit, part of a larger plan to deploy a solar-powered satellite network to “meet the explosive growth of data demands driven by AI.”

In December 2025, Starcloud— a startup backed by Y Combinator and Nvidia— launched its first AI-equipped satellite into space. Chief Executive and Co-Founder Philip Johnston projected that extraterrestrial data centers will produce 10 times fewer carbon emissions than their Earth-based counterparts, even when accounting for the emissions generated during launch.

While the cost of satellites used to test AI hardware in space has dropped drastically, making extraterrestrial data center development a feasible goal, the total cost of building these solar-powered facilities remains unknown. This is particularly true, as an April 2025 McKinsey report projects that Earth-based data centers will require more than $5 trillion in capital expenditures by 2030.

Google, which has reclaimed its spot among the top AI contenders following the recent launch of Gemini 3, is among several major hyperscalers investing heavily in data centers to expand its computing capabilities. Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, announced in February that it will spend between $175 billion and $185 billion in capital expenditures this year, primarily to build out AI infrastructure.

Data center moonshots return to solid ground

Amid all this activity, speculation of an AI bubble threatens to create an oversupply of data centers, which could turn the race for space-based data centers into a dangerous case of overinvestment. What’s more, given how rapidly the technology is evolving, there is a risk that data centers currently under construction will have outdated equipment by the time they are completed.

Hyperscalers including Alphabet are taking an even greater risk by financing their AI buildouts with debt. In 2025, Alphabet, Amazon, Oracle, Meta and Microsoft issued $121 billion in new debt through bond issuances, a sharp increase from the $40 billion in new debt raised in 2020.

“The stakes are high,” the McKinsey report stated. “Overinvesting in data center infrastructure risks stranding assets, while underinvesting means falling behind competitors.”

Harnessing solar energy to power data centers has grown increasingly appealing amid growing concerns about the sustainability of scaling up AI computing, which requires an exorbitant amount of power. A December 2024 U.S. Department of Energy report on domestic data center usage found that data center load has tripled over the past 10 years and could double or triple again by 2028. These facilities consumed more than 4% of the nation’s electricity in 2023, and are projected to account for up to 12% of U.S. electricity use by 2028, according to the report.

According to Google’s latest sustainability report, released in June 2025, the company’s data center electricity consumption alone has more than doubled over the past five years, reaching 30.8 million megawatt-hours last year, compared to 14.4 million in 2020— the year Google first began specifically tracking data center energy use.

Google has taken steps to reduce the energy needed to power its growing data center network, reporting that it cut its data center energy emissions by 12% in 2024 despite its expanding operational footprint. However, concerns about the feasibility and timeline of expanding extraterrestrial data centers persist.

Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman poured cold water on the idea of space-based data centers during a tech conference in San Francisco in February: “I don’t know if you’ve seen a server rack lately— they’re extremely heavy. And as far as I know, humanity hasn’t yet built a permanent structure in space. So… maybe not just yet.”

Other critics have warned about potential future sustainability concerns if AI infrastructure expands beyond Earth, noting that the AI space race is still decades away from becoming a widespread reality.

“There is still much we do not know about AI’s environmental impact, but some of the data we do have is worrying,” said Golestan Radwan, Chief Digital Officer for the United Nations Environment Programme, in a 2024 statement following the agency’s note warning of the environmental effects of expanding AI infrastructure. “We need to ensure that the net impact of AI on the planet is positive before we deploy this technology at scale.”

An earlier version of this story was published on .com on December 1, 2025.

Additional coverage of extraterrestrial data centers:

• Google’s plan to place data centers in orbit faces countless small hurdles: space debris
• Elon Musk is pushing to build space-based data centers. But they won’t solve AI’s power shortages anytime soon
• AI is facing a power crunch. Space will not be a quick fix for decades to come