THE CRUNCH

Google plans to run AI infrastructure in orbit using solar power with an experimental satellite called MVP set to launch on October 1. The refrigerator-size satellite was built and tested at Planet Labs and is designed to handle basic AI queries from space. Google VP James Manyika says the project should provide enough computing power for orbital tasks. The venture faces significant hurdles, including the lack of air for cooling and the high cost of launching hardware. Google manager Travis Beals estimates that around 10,000 satellites would be needed to match the power of a single 1-gigawatt data center on Earth. Jeff Bezos has suggested it could take up to 20 years before orbital data centers become cost-effective.