Google throws a satellite into the ring as the AI space race heats up

Investors just got fresh confirmation that the new frontier of computing is in space. Google is the latest tech company aiming to put a data center into Earth's orbit, in the hopes of solving resource constraints back on the ground and capturing the insatiable demand for AI computing power. Dubbed Project Suncatcher, the company's first step is sending an experimental satellite into orbit (via SpaceX, of course) equipped with chips capable of answering simple AI queries from space. The ambitious efforts will mark the first attempt by a tech company to put a (micro) data center in space, but Google is joining other AI firms that see orbital data centers as a logical evolution of the great terrestrial AI build-out.