Science & Tech · Space · 16 hrs ago
Google executive says space data centers could cost 100 times more
Google executive Amanda Peterson Corio says space data centers could cost up to 100 times more than facilities on Earth.
Her comments come as Google tests Project Suncatcher, a prototype satellite built with Planet and launched on October 1.
The satellite has four TPUs, but its roughly 1 kilowatt of solar power lets it run only one chip at a time for about 20 minutes per session.
That is a tiny test compared with a ground-based AI campus, which can draw about a million times as much power.
Corio says the main obstacle to building data centers on Earth is getting permits, while supporters of orbital computing say space could avoid that challenge.
The high price could make orbital computing hard to justify, especially if customers pay the same rates as for computing on Earth.
Google project lead Travis Beals has said he does not expect space-based computing to become cheaper than ground-based computing within the next five years.
Google is continuing its Suncatcher test, but the sources give no timeline for scaling it up.
Google’s global head of data center energy, Amanda Peterson Corio, said data centers in space could cost up to 100 times more than those on Earth.
Corio said the industry should explore terrestrial options before turning to space.
Her comments came as Google tests an orbital data center prototype called Project Suncatcher.
The prototype has run an AI model on an onboard TPU, but its satellite generates about 1 kilowatt of solar power and can run one chip at a time.
- Who
- Amanda Peterson Corio, Google’s global head of data center energy, made the cost estimate.
- What
- She said space data centers could cost up to 100 times more than terrestrial ones.
- When
- At The Information’s recent WTF Summit; the article was published on November 8, 2026.
- Where
- The summit was in Napa Valley.
- Why
- Corio said terrestrial options should be explored first; she described permitting, rather than power, as the main bottleneck on Earth.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Google unveiled Project Suncatcher and described it as a moonshot.
Google’s first Project Suncatcher prototype launched on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission.
Project lead Travis Beals told NPR he did not expect orbital computing to become cheaper than terrestrial computing within five years.
Google announced that an onboard Gemma 4 model had run on a TPU and generated a short haiku about being in space.
Amanda Peterson Corio said space data centers could cost up to 100 times as much as those on the ground.
- Estimated cost
- Up to 100 times that of terrestrial data centers
- Project
- Google’s Project Suncatcher
- Prototype launch
- October 1, on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission
- Satellite solar power
- About 1 kilowatt
- Onboard processors
- Four TPUs; the satellite can run one chip at a time
- Orbital AI milestone
- An onboard Gemma 4 model ran on a TPU
What people are saying
Let's explore all the terrestrial options before we go extraterrestrial.
should give pause to anyone trying to model this business out.
Posts on X
So $5T per GW…?! The fact that the head of data center energy at a hyperscaler is this far off from estimates from $SPCX management/bulls should give pause to anyone trying to model this business out.