The AI industry is making a multi-trillion-dollar gamble, and the stakes are literally astronomical. Google’s “Project Suncatcher” is the latest major bet, joining Elon Musk and an Nvidia-backed startup in a race to move the $3 trillion datacenter industry from Earth to orbit.
This massive strategic pivot is driven by a shared problem: the terrestrial AI boom is environmentally and economically unsustainable. It’s causing “rising concern” over carbon emissions and its “impact on terrestrial resources” like land and water.
The “gambit” is to trade these terrestrial problems for a new set of celestial ones. The shared solution is to use “unlimited, low-cost” orbital solar power, which is 8-times more productive. The shared challenges are “significant,” including rocket launch CO2, astronomer objections, and immense engineering hurdles like thermal management.
The race is on. Nvidia/Starcloud is launching chips this month. Elon Musk, who runs SpaceX, announced his plans “last week.” Google is now on the board, with 2027 prototypes. All three are chasing the same prize: a future where AI can scale indefinitely, powered by the sun.
This is more than a “moonshot”; it’s a “market-shot.” These companies are betting that the falling cost of rockets will make space a “comparable” and “scalable” solution by the 2030s, turning a science-fiction concept into the next great infrastructure platform.
