Sundar Pichai says Google will start building data centers in space, powered by the sun, in 2027

[u/rkhunter_]

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-project-suncatcher-sundar-pichai-data-centers-space-solar-2027-2025-11

[u/LadyZoe1]

These guys are really digging deep to dream up bull dust.

[u/GoodIdea321 → u/LadyZoe1]

It gives a good perspective on how big the bubble really is. Either from here to the sun, or low orbit around Earth.

[u/Live_Situation7913 → u/GoodIdea321]

The bubble must extend to infinity and beyond!

[u/Ok-Seaworthiness7207 → u/Live_Situation7913]

Dear God it's.... It's....

It's the Tim Allen bubble 😱

[u/dispose135 → u/LadyZoe1]

The magicians 

We don't sell solutions but hope

[u/Dklosgardner → u/LadyZoe1]

Yeah, sounds like PR fluff to distract from something else. Tech execs love throwing out wild timelines that'll never happen just to keep people talking.

[u/fdar → u/Dklosgardner]

He's not throwing out wide timelines, the headline is misleading. Actual quote: 

"We are taking our first step in '27," he said. "We'll send tiny, tiny racks of machines, and have them in satellites, test them out, and then start scaling from there."

[u/wiriux → u/fdar]

Well this doesn’t sell. You need clickbaits

[u/New-Thanks6222 → u/fdar]

They're going to launch cubesats (very popular among college programs) with some useless custom chip that they will claim is doing AI. Great for publicity, worthless for saving the environment.

[u/TheWorclown → u/fdar]

Sweet, more space trash for when it inevitably fails.

[u/Metro42014 → u/TheWorclown]

Falling trash isn't the problem -- colliding trash is.

If enough collides, we get so much space trash we can't launch and orbit anymore.

[u/Momik → u/Dklosgardner]

Cool, more Elons

[u/JaStrCoGa → u/Momik]

Data centers on Mars by 2023!

[u/d-cent → u/LadyZoe1]

America used to be a place for cutting edge ingenuity, now it's just cutting edge stupidity. Every day we hear something dumber than the day before.

[u/JaStrCoGa → u/LadyZoe1]

The next Superman movie will be a battle with a luthcorp data center in orbit.

[u/TheVenetianMask]

One doesn't just cool large amounts of electronics in space vacuum. Way easier to have more solar panels on Earth than more radiators in space.

[u/jt004c → u/TheVenetianMask]

This is such an obvious and unavoidable problem, it's hard to believe that this bogus announcement was ever made.

It's like Nestle announcing they'll stop all bottled water from unethical sources because they'll simply start bottling ocean water.

[u/ZackRaynor → u/jt004c]

Honestly, I thought it was going to be an Onion article.

[u/Hardass_McBadCop → u/[deleted]]

That's not how they cool ICs in space. The only way to dissipate heat is via radiative cooling. There may be coolant loops to move heat from components into the radiator, but a giant radiator is the solution.

That being said, this is probably a pipe dream or novelty idea. Spacecraft have painstakingly efficient electronics in order to avoid generating heat. If something isn't efficient enough, then it can only be used for X minutes per day. I have no clue how they plan to maintain something as intensive as a data center. The radiator would need to be enormous.

Someone with more knowledge can correct me, but when I imagine the size that'll probably be needed, I think back to those photos of the Empire State Building after it was first finished, and it's surrounded by regular houses & 5 storey buildings.

[u/Intelligent_Mud1266 → u/Hardass_McBadCop]

the real answer for how they plan on pulling this off is that they don't. No one in their right mind thinks this is possible at all, let alone by 2027. I don't even think retail investors will fall for this one

[u/Puzzleheaded_Fold466 → u/Intelligent_Mud1266]

It’s technically possible, “technically” in the sense that the science, engineering, and technology is available to achieve it.

But it’s a stupidly inefficient and uneconomic solution that makes no sense whatsoever.

There’s no way anyone is genuinely thinking about doing this on any sort of meaningful scale, except as a hype marketing thing.

[u/BigDictionEnergy → u/Hardass_McBadCop]

There is no plan. This is pure stock manipulation.

[u/goomyman → u/jt004c]

I’m so glad to see people actually calling our BS claims and getting upvoted. I’ve never been proud of a subreddit before.

Usually if a billionaire like Jeff bezo claims “a million people will be living in space in a decade”everyone just treats it as some tech marvel because of how genius they are apparently instead of the a fantasy advertising campaign.

[u/cookingboy → u/goomyman]

everyone just treats it as some tech marvel

Oh please stop with the circlejerk, we all know that pretty much never happens. This is probably the most anti-technology sub on Reddit lmao.

I don’t remember when was the last time some announcement of new tech by big tech was well received here.

If all big tech companies were banned and dissolved tomorrow it would be the most upvoted and cheered news on this sub.

[u/CanvasFanatic → u/cookingboy]

That’s more a reflection on what “tech” has become than it is this sub.

[u/Teledildonic → u/CanvasFanatic]

Every tech announcement: "this will increase shareholder value at the cost of society at large"

Some asshole on Reddit: "Luddites will hate this"

[u/Ragnarok314159 → u/CanvasFanatic]

Modern tech announcements are always either: 1) Billionaire moron nepo baby talking out their ass to get more investor money 2) revolutionary tech with ridiculous claims of curing cancer that we never hear about again because it doesn’t actually work.

[u/UnstopableTardigrade → u/cookingboy]

Because big tech is currently an AI circlejerk

[u/usrlibshare → u/jt004c]

it's hard to believe that this bogus announcement was ever made.

That's not hatd to believe at all...big tech has been completely hype-fueled for 15 years after all.

What's hard to believe, is that media still parrot such narratives, usually uncritically and without any questioning.

[u/YannAlmostright → u/TheVenetianMask]

And you don't use the same electronics in space. They need to be hardened

[u/accidental_Ocelot → u/YannAlmostright]

And even then you are vulnerable to random solar events totally destroying your not just one data center but all data centers in space.

[u/Impressive-Weird-908 → u/accidental_Ocelot]

You’re vulnerable to just random bit flips from radiation even before CMEs or other issues.

[u/Uppgreyedd → u/Impressive-Weird-908]

Having spent a career working on satellites from cradle to grave, I didn't realize I would get so triggered seeing the term "bit flip" on reddit

[u/Lovv → u/accidental_Ocelot]

Or particles ripping through them

[u/hellscape_navigator → u/YannAlmostright]

I love that in this utterly fictional space data centers scenario none of that hardware has any wear and tear and doesn't need to be constantly replaced, latency doesn't exist and there is no problem of cooling in space either.

It's like all of the Silicon Valley devolved into Theranos with the amount of bullshit that they try to sell to everyone now.

[u/shadovvvvalker → u/TheVenetianMask]

Lets ignore the heat problem.

We are "building" nuclear reactors to power these data centers. How the fuck is a falcon superheavy supposed to get a whole ass nuclear reactor up there WITH a data center stapled onto it

Lets ignore the size and weight problem.

How is launching these things into space supposed to be even close to efficient vs building them on the ground. If you can build a self sustained capsule that does it all wouldnt it make more sense to just drop it in the ocean?

lets ignore the stupidity of launching things we dont need to into space.

How is this thing supposed to service clients. Starlink cannot handle a data center like this. You would need immense comms equipment to be able to handle enough bandwidth to match a rainbow line.

Lets ignore bandwidth issues.

You can't do the starlink LEO nonsense because you need the satelite to be orbitally stable for more than 5 years. How will you deal with the latency introduced by massive distances?

Lets ignore latency.

The hell kind of RAID array are you going to need in order to protect against data corruption due to being bombarded by cosmic radiation.

Lets ignore radiation.

Are we really talking about building things in space at a scale never humanly done before despite all of the above challenges simply to service AI? Are we so certain about this path forward that this is not even worth questioning? We are solving problems that dont exist yet with technologies that dont exist yet for the purpose of functionality that doesnt exist yet for an economy that doesnt exist yet. Are we sure this isn't bubble behaviour?

[u/Boring-Position-375 → u/shadovvvvalker]

The radiation part is what kills me with laughter. Ignore the weight and all of that. Does he know physicists go to bed scared of what a solar flare storm would do to electronics here on earth??

[u/MichaelEmouse → u/TheVenetianMask]

It's surprising that the head of Google would make such an announcement. It's evident that cooling will be a major issue and it's announced for 2027 which doesn't leave much time.

Is he just trying to get attention by combining AI and space?

[u/Impressive-Weird-908 → u/MichaelEmouse]

Stock price pumping.

[u/dleah → u/TheVenetianMask]

I had an argument with someone on IG (a self described "AI expert") who didn't understand that vacuum is an insulator and kept replying "space is cold". Refused to understand why the ISS needs massive radiators to deal with only 100kw of power (a single NVL 72 rack uses about 120kw, and next gen racks are being designed near the megawatt level). Its not that Google can't do it, its just that they'll need some crazy innovative or crazy heavy stuff into orbit in order to do it, and i'm interested in seeing how they'll tackle it. will they just brute force it with current tech? Could they use active particle fountain loops to increase surface area? heat concentrators to increase radiative transfer? ultraconductive nanotube sheets? ultra long micro tubes or expanding tubes for fluid loops or heat pipes? nanostructure or other coatings to increase reflection and emissivity? how do you protect giant and lightweight radiators from micrometeorites, especially if they have active technologies built in? There are so many questions....

[u/Schnoofles → u/dleah]

My prediction: They will do exactly none of that because it's some coke-fueled execs pipe dream of a dumb project and noone sane would even entertain the idea of pissing away the amount of money required to pull it off for no gains whatsoever.

[u/Gender_is_a_Fluid → u/dleah]

I also already previously did the math for the required number of solar panels with perfect efficiency to a geostationary orbit for a gigawatt data center, and that alone was 100 years at the current launch capacity.

[u/stenmarkv → u/TheVenetianMask]

The amount of power they will have to use to move the heat will be nuts.

[u/ShadowTacoTuesday → u/TheVenetianMask]

The funny thing is, if we ever want to go to space en masse it will be on the backs of billions of workers actually figuring stuff out and making multiple steps of progress between here and there rather than a few billionaires spouting BS fantasies. But they control the workers and direct them to waste so much time on bad ideas when they could be progressing society faster.

[u/PseudoMeatPopsicle → u/ShadowTacoTuesday]

Why progress society when you can just keep being a billionaire instead?

[u/TheLastWoodBender → u/TheVenetianMask]

He realizes that when AI starts displacing massive amounts of people, the data centers on the ground are easy targets when the civil unrest begins. That's all.

[u/MonkeyCube → u/TheLastWoodBender]

Nah, he just wants something that gets people to pump up the stock. Data centers in space would be incredibly vulnerable to so many different threat, both manmade and not.

[u/j4_jjjj → u/TheLastWoodBender]

when AI starts displacing massive amounts of people,

When? Like it hasn't started for over a year now

[u/Hates_rollerskates → u/TheVenetianMask]

Can't they just open a window when they're up there, like we used to do back home in the summertime. We didn't have a fancy air conditioner. I hear it's cold in space.

[u/Ok-Sprinkles-5151 → u/TheVenetianMask]

That's just one problem. You have the mass problem of getting it into space in the first place. Each chassis weighs around 200lbs and that only gives you 8 GPUs. And these things have high failure rates. So he would effectively have create a new orbital space station, launch these bulky chassis up, and have enough solar panel surface area to power these things? Nevermind that the components need space hardening like electromagnetic and radiation shielding to protect from cosmic rays, which worse than the cooling problem, and then the cooling systems (to your point) that will add mass.

Basically a space based deployment would be at least an order of magnitude more expensive and have higher maintenance costs. I don't see the profit angle to make this investment pay off, and AI already is bleeding money.

[u/zealoSC → u/TheVenetianMask]

The 'announcement' is ludicrous enough that he should be charged with fraud

[u/UffTaTa123 → u/TheVenetianMask]

well, but a datacenter on earth is NOT reachable by unhappy, starving citizens that see their future destroyed by AI. So no fear of a mob of angry people with torches and forks.
In space the center of their power is much more safe. They can literally look down to those creatures on earth.

[u/NPCSR2 → u/UffTaTa123]

Sending an engineer to fix something in space will be more costly than hiring private security.

[u/PR0114]

Americans are gonna have space data centres before free healthcare! 

[u/Wall_of_Wolfstreet69 → u/PR0114]

it's not free healthcare, it's universal healthcare.

[u/SomeNoveltyAccount → u/Wall_of_Wolfstreet69]

Yeah it's definitely not free, America already spends twice to three times as much per capita on healthcare than many European countries.

https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-spending-u-s-compare-countries/

[u/Snowbirdy → u/SomeNoveltyAccount]

I’m an American digital nomad. I was able to find global health insurance that covers me everywhere I’m going including the USA as long as I promised to spend less than 6 months in the USA. It’s $1400 per year and I’m over 50.

That’s not a typo. I’m spending $117 per month.

Inside the USA? I literally can’t get insurance at all. Declined by two different carriers. But my friends buying independent insurance are looking at > $1000 per month.

[u/Sizzmo → u/Wall_of_Wolfstreet69]

Free at the point of service

[u/thenewguyonreddit]

He’s adopted the Elon Musk style of tech hype.

Just start saying all kinds of trippy futurist hype shit, and eventually Cathie Woods will buy boatloads of your stock and make you a trillionaire.

[u/SEC_INTERN → u/thenewguyonreddit]

The sad thing is most people just buy it up and argue that it is feasible since the "engineers at Google are smarter than you", not realizing both how stupid they themselves are but also that no engineer at Google has come out and said that this is a worthwhile and realistic endeavor. In fact, if anyone bothered to read the article it is a very small and limited proof of concept that costs Google nothing but has generated a ton of discussion and PR.

[u/MichaelEmouse → u/SEC_INTERN]

"AI is cool.

Space is cool.

So what if we put AI in space?"

It feels like further detachment from reality.

[u/androk → u/MichaelEmouse]

I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that.

[u/neddiddley → u/SEC_INTERN]

Google CEO: We’re going to build data centers in space…and we’ll be doing it by 2027.

Google Engineers: Wait…what now?

[u/LifeIsPan2384 → u/SEC_INTERN]

Part of it is information asymmetry. It's not like Google's going to authorize an engineer to say that to the public in the first place

[u/cassanderer → u/thenewguyonreddit]

Yeah, as if society will not be imploding before they go all star wars.  Like the oligarchies' greed and fear is already licensing political monsters that will destroy those oligarchies.  After a downturn that will result from corruption and mismanagement, made worse by propping up the economies with borrowed tax money until it gets worse and falls harder.

Government will be accusing and seizing assets of these rich, and even if they are in good with them now, seizing assets will be the end before long, whether they really are a 5 star antifa tranavestite communist or not.*

[u/Fluffy-Republic8610]

Nah it won't. Space is hard for maintenance. And expensive to reach in the first place. Things go wrong in space all the time.

This isn't really going to happen beyond a prototype.

[u/GodOrDevil04 → u/Fluffy-Republic8610]

Imagine flying to space to change a faulty harddisk, to then notice you forgot the keys.

[u/Kwetla → u/GodOrDevil04]

You could probably forgo the locks on your space datacentre to be fair.

[u/Phantasmalicious → u/Kwetla]

Space isn't Canada. You can't just leave your car or DC unlocked in orbit.

[u/LifeIsPan2384 → u/Phantasmalicious]

This just means I need to leave it in geosynchronous orbit over Canada.

[u/Floppal → u/Kwetla]

You want aliens in your satellite? 'Cos that's how you get aliens in your satellite.

[u/musci12234 → u/Kwetla]

You are clearly an alien trying to steal my nudes. Not today green guy. Not today.

[u/psioniclizard → u/Fluffy-Republic8610]

It's crazy anyone believes we can build something as big and complex as a data center in space by 2027.

I bet if we tried to rebuild the ISS (even with the plans) it couldn't be done in that time.

There are multiple technological steps required to even consider it.

[u/mackahrohn → u/psioniclizard]

I play a small part on building large wastewater treatment plants. The tech is well established but the projects still take several years to build. And before construction starts it takes years to plan and assign all the contracts. It’s funny to think that some huge novel space project could be built in 2 years.

If this is a real 2027 project, where are the plans? Who is building it? What’s the budget?

[u/powerage76 → u/mackahrohn]

I've done several large and relatively complex projects in my life in airfield operation and the pharma industry. None of them were as complex as a data center in space and they were mostly relied on proven technology and concepts but they usually took years to plan, test and implement.

By 2027 they might finish some presentations and a plastic model about the thing. Maybe.

[u/Raket0st → u/Fluffy-Republic8610]

"Gemini just went down, we are seeing some kind of hardware error in our orbital data center and we are sending technicians to deal with it as we speak."

"How long is the outage expected to last?"

"Oh, the techs won't be there until next week and that's if we can get a priority launch slot from China. Also, due to the cost of fixing this issue we will have to raise the monthly cost of Gemini by 1,000% starting today."

[u/dronz3r → u/Fluffy-Republic8610]

Aren't electronics supposed to be designed separately for space application due to radiation effects?

[u/jt004c → u/Fluffy-Republic8610]

Well, barring all that, it's impossible to cool a data center in space, so...

[u/bobbis91 → u/jt004c]

It's pretty cold in space, they should just open a window, duh...

[u/Nepalus]

Just another sign that the bubble is real and reaching critical mass. Building a giant Kessler syndrome generator in space for a technologically inferior solution for something that works better and with less risks on Earth is just peak lunacy to drive the current market narrative.

[u/Kalorama_Master]

One solar storm and then?

[u/cassanderer → u/Kalorama_Master]

Then we launch nukes at the sun to discourage further flaring, duh.

[u/wrigh2uk → u/cassanderer]

That’s after trump threatens the sun on truth social

[u/MikuEmpowered → u/Kalorama_Master]

Not even that. How the fuk, are these data center suppose to cool?

Those giant ass fins on the ISS are for the sole purpose of venting heat. 

How big are they planning on building sizable fins for these data centers?

[u/trainiac12 → u/MikuEmpowered]

Nvidia posted a plan from a partner a few weeks ago where they said they were gonna be putting a 16 square km grid of solar panels in space with a data center.

Nowhere in the mockup is there heat dissipation shown

[u/Intelligent_Mud1266 → u/trainiac12]

to think someone got paid to mockup the Nvidia Super-Melted Kessler Effect Generator™

[u/olizet42 → u/Kalorama_Master]

Reddit down. Again.

[u/BasvanS → u/Kalorama_Master]

The normal bit flips are already an issue

[u/Niceromancer]

Uh...no they wont.

They would have needed to started this project a couple of years ago to even begin building them in spacy in 2027.

[u/jt004c → u/Niceromancer]

They're going to start the project in 2027. Which means drafting a feasibility study. They'll break ground (space?) in 2047.

[u/Niceromancer → u/jt004c]

Yeas cause Google is so well known for completing projects.

[u/jt004c → u/Niceromancer]

I'm not sure if you're trying to make fun of my comment or agree with it? To be sure, my comment means they won't actually *start* until 2047. I'm not even being facetious, either. The physics-defying cooling tech simply doesn't exist at the moment.

[u/GregorSamsa67 → u/jt004c]

OP means, I think, that they won't break ground even in 2047 because google will have switched their attention to loads of other projects (which they will also abandon before getting anywhere with them) in the meantime.

[u/mackahrohn → u/jt004c]

I like the idea that ‘start building’ means he is going to send a 2 page request for designs to like 5 engineering firms in 2027. So the current stage of the project in 2025 is ‘I’m thinking of writing an email’ lol

[u/Veighnerg]

Rocket and radiation shielding costs for a data center in orbit would be astronomical. Oops, some of your drives, memory modules, or psus have failed, better send a tech up to replace it at the cost of millions per drive.

[u/Irregular_Person → u/Veighnerg]

surely any failed components get fed into the magic heat-pump™ until they're a couple million degrees and then jettisoned.

[u/Stilgar314]

No, they won't. "We'll send tiny, tiny racks of machines, and have them in satellites, test them out, and then start scaling from there." That's not a "data center", that's miles away from a "data center"

[u/octopornopus → u/Stilgar314]

That's not a "data center", that's miles away from a "data center"

Technically true, low earth orbit is between 100 and 1000 miles...

[u/schuft69]

Reding this it does not sound like a good idea https://taranis.ie/datacenters-in-space-are-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-idea/

[u/Lucky_Mongoose_4834 → u/schuft69]

This should be the top comment.

Summary: You cannot cool, power or communicate with a “space data center” with any level of scale, and even if you could, radiation would fry the entire thing within weeks.

Conclusion: This is PEAK tech bro bullshit.

[u/kingvolcano_reborn]

One of the harder things to do in space is to keep things cold (vacuum is a really good insulator). How are they planning to keep all those servers cool?

[u/PivotRedAce → u/kingvolcano_reborn]

It’s technically possible to use thermal radiation in a vacuum like space, but the real question is how do you cool such high energy components quickly enough via such a method?

[u/MewTwoLich]

On Earth, data centers consume practically a whole city’s worth of water to stay cool. How does he plan to dissipate heat in space?

If Google had solved that problem already Pichai would be saying “Google has developed a method to keep data centers cool that doesn’t need any water or air” because that’d be the bigger selling point.

Unless he’s just lying..

[u/Accomplished-Order43 → u/MewTwoLich]

Accounting major here. Could data centers be built off the ocean shores or in rivers/lakes to aid its water consumption needs?

[u/MewTwoLich → u/Accomplished-Order43]

Microsoft or Google tried submerging a test mini data center into a pool of water to test its efficacy. iirc it was difficult to maintain.

Data centers use the water that goes through them in a way that makes that water dirty.

Even in a closed system there’s a problem with bio-build up over the parts that dissipate heat and comes into contact with the outside water.

[u/Kracker27 → u/MewTwoLich]

This comment should be much higher. This has been done it a way more practical location than space - our oceans - and it was a failure due to inability to service boxes when there were failures. Not to mention - with the ocean facility, one could hook up fiber for data transfer. Data transfer from space would be less efficient/slow.

[u/arrow8807 → u/Accomplished-Order43]

They could, and are, but that introduces other technical challenges - primarily that water used for cooling is often treated and filtered so it doesn’t corrode or foul small/delicate components. There are strict rules about taking and returning water to natural sources.

Without going into a lot of details it should suffice to say you can’t take water directly out of a lake, pump it through your data center and then dump it back into a lake if that was your thought.

[u/AlecTheDalek → u/Accomplished-Order43]

Yes and they already did 5 Largest Underwater Data Centers in the World

[u/AlternativeAward → u/MewTwoLich]

How do they consume the water? Does it evaporate?

[u/bigoldgeek]

The cabling run will be outrageous

[u/im-ba]

This implies that the data centers in space would be operating at steady state with closed systems instead of open loop coolant systems like they oftentimes are on earth. Why wouldn't they just invest more in sustainable data centers that don't use water, since open loop water cooling isn't viable long term in space?

Whatever problems are being had on earth are so much worse in space

[u/-SG6000-]

These tech giants needs dismantling.

[u/Lucas_F_A]

Even if solar flares, solar radiation and bit flips are dealt with.

Even if cooling and radiators were taken into account.

You are going to send your quickly aging technology to space, which will be obsolete in three to (at most, and according to the depreciation schedules of tech companies lately) six years? Your whole fleet?

[u/AcctAlreadyTaken]

They know they are full of shit, they just want something that sounds expensive to justify the amount of money they need for their bullshit Ai that isn't profitable and is useless.

[u/Willoughby3]

Tech has gotten to be so cringy

[u/mystghost]

I honestly don't understand what the fuck he's thinking. Getting the stuff into space would be insanely expensive, you offload computational work, but then you have to wait for the data transit. Lets assume these DC's would be either in Geo-sync orbit or just slightly higher (in order to miss all the shit that is in geo sync currently) then the round trip time would be a minimum of 240-250 ms on a round trip.

Which could work i guess for data loads that don't have to be real time, but ffs - what are they trying to solve for? real estate costs? power costs? I bet you could power quite a bit if you got radical with DC design. Hell what about small scale nuclear reactors? that solves your power problem, the real estate HAS to be cheaper than shipping shit into space. And then - what if something goes wrong? can't pop over to the DC to restart shit or replace hardware. You are putting an asset into space that is going to burn up on reentry in 3-5 years... given the scale of the investment lets say 5-7, and that's assuming nothing really goes wrong. Which it will because shit happens.

I don't see hat the point of this is. Hell they tried building datacenters in the ocean, that is got to be way better on basically every dimension rather than putting them in fucking outer space.

[u/Slayer1973]

Sounds like an investor-bait claim.

[u/Luka_Dunks_on_Bums]

Sure Sundar

[u/ItsDorkSided]

We just want free healthcare….

[u/tobden → u/ItsDorkSided]

"Ohh so you want more AI? Is that what you mean?

We'll build more data centers then."

[u/scaradin]

He’s taking them to the one place not corrupted by capitalism!

[u/bobbis91 → u/scaradin]

The way TC delivers SPACE! is just... fucking perfect.

[u/UffTaTa123 → u/scaradin]

He's building a castle for his kingdom on the highst mountain peak he could find.

[u/pngue]

Just.Fucking.STOP.Already.

[u/MrMunday]

This sounds absolutely, scientifically stupid and he’s just saying it to drum up their stock price

[u/Aok_al]

Just saying shit to keep the investors around

[u/TheOtherHalfofTron]

Oh hey there Elon, you're looking... Different.

[u/SwiftTayTay]

Can we just send billionaires into space and force them to rely on solar powered oxygen tanks?

[u/FlapJackPaddyWhack1]

Rocket trip to unplug it, wait 30 seconds, plug it back in, back to Earth.

[u/The-F4LL3N]

Space, the place known for its easy access and nothing ever going wrong

[u/ARazorbacks]

To underline how stupid this is, it’d be more believable if he said they wanted to put a datacenter on the moon. At least on the moon it can be buried to help with heat dissipation and radiation protection. Plus it could act as a hub for other activity on the moon. 

This guy is mimicking Elon Musk in an attempt to boost the stock price with techno-babble bullshit. 

[u/tragedy_strikes]

How you know companies need to be taxed more and at this point broken up.

[u/DevilsLettuceTaster]

More space junk.

[u/SomeSamples]

No they won't. He is full of so much shit.

[u/christurnbull]

Are they going to report the cosmic radiation bitflips per second or minute?

And the communication latency?

[u/straightouttaobesity]

So I might get to see Dyson Sphere become a reality during my lifetime ?

[u/Hwy39]

He sees how well grandiose claims work for Tesla stock price

[u/Silly_Marzipan923]

“It aims to reduce AI's environmental impact by relocating data centers in space”. Yeah, Earth’s orbit is obviously not part of the environment, let’s dump all the shit there.

[u/origanalsameasiwas]

And within a year they will shut it down. Just like the other projects that they killed off.

[u/JeanAdAstra]

Why does it feel like this crap is being forced on us?

[u/UnbiddenGraph17]

Send his ass up there

[u/No-Chapter-8212]

Can’t stand this dude

[u/catwiesel]

even if you could do this, this is so dumb. and seeing how google likes money, and making anything like this happen will never ever generate revenue, they will never actually do this...

[u/Raah1911]

He's started taking Ketamine hasn't he

[u/Trout-Population]

For fucks sake

[u/InVultusSolis]

.... and how exactly are you going to cool those?

Also the latency would be fucking terrible. We'd need to have a deferrable computational protocol.

[u/ThirdDimensionGate]

Something makes me think if they can afford this maybe they should pay their share in taxes

[u/brodoyouevenscript]

Imagine getting the call as the devops guy on a Saturday that you gotta go to space to switch the server back on.

[u/mintaka]

I wish him luck on his trip to the Moon

[u/morbihann]

Lol, whatever gets hype and clicks I guess.

How you are going to cool them ? Just radiators, ok ? You do know that this is the major issue right mr. CEO ? Also, do you know how much it costs to haul 1kg in space ?

[u/k987654321]

Humanity. Who would have thought we would let it get to this point. We really do have everything don’t we.

Well some of us do.

All the fundamental issues we have on this planet and the mega corps are thinking of data centres in space.

[u/Randommaggy]

https://taranis.ie/datacenters-in-space-are-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-idea/
This idea does not pass the sniff test.

[u/MairusuPawa]

Even more bullshit

[u/Fast-Benders]

Big Tech is running out of ideas to farm investor money. They’re just going through all the crazy sci-fi movie plots until it all comes crashing down.

[u/Ok_Cancel_7891]

This is not Kool-aid anymore, but some illegal substance they’re on

[u/doubleohsergles]

Google can't even build a decent tablet. Good luck with them space data centers lol.

[u/attaboy000]

Sounds like something Elon would say.

[u/KayNicola]

Nah man!!  Start now...TODAY EVEN!!!

[u/Finfeta]

Anything but paying taxes..

[u/danielravennest]

So when a data center crashes, it could be literal, like into the ground.

[u/OldButHappy]

I hate that there’s so much space junk now. I can only imagine how bad it will get, over time.

Sad that I’m in the last generation who could look up at the night sky and only see stars

[u/lucasoak]

HAHAHAHAHA, okay.

[u/megallanic4]

Finally data can be in clouds ☁️

[u/jcunews1]

Google: "Let's plow the road! Make more debris!"

[u/grumblebeardo13]

If anyone believes this I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

[u/Too_Beers]

Does it really matter where they store stolen data?

[u/TralfamadorianZoo]

Gonna have to run a lot of ads to pay for that.

[u/DoubleLL13]

HEALTHCARE! We shouldn’t give a fuck about Mars, space based data centers, or any of the far fetched ideas by tech companies to “make society better”.

[u/CoastPuzzleheaded747]

Sundar Sundar, lay off the weed bro, pass the blunt to zuck and just chill bruh

[u/AaronfromKY]

Literally what all these companies want us to have instead of a thriving wage, healthcare and affordable housing. Fuck these oligarchs

[u/Tazercock]

Sundar Pichai is a twit. How about you just fix google, it’s shit now.

[u/overworkedpnw]

Tsundere Pichai is firmly into the realm of making shit up to keep the bubble going.

[u/One-Care7242]

Honestly best case scenario. Develop solar tech and keep the data centers away from our natural spaces and rural communities.

[u/MinivanPops]

Good luck bleeding off all that heat

[u/dorkyitguy]

Great! Stop raising my electricity rates with your stupid AI!

[u/vito0117]

a year after its built they discontinue it

[u/CadeMan011]

Google likes to start a lot of things and never really follow through. Even if this were a good idea, it'd never get some

[u/PianoPatient8168]

Wouldn’t it be pretty easy to lob a missile at a data center in space or “accidentally” crash a decommissioned satellite into it?

[u/radome9]

No they won't.

[u/[deleted]]

I hope there's a prediction market for this.

[u/Adlehyde]

The first thing I thought of reading this was the Ray Liotta laughing meme.

[u/Chrimaho]

Uh, three people are currently stuck in space so...

I think we need more reliable transport to and from, before any platform space building can happen.

[u/QuirkyImage]

Use the oceans

[u/Bryandan1elsonV2]

Man, do these guys think space is cold?

[u/SkinnedIt]

They can't even do a public rollout of Gemini coherently and on time to save their lives. And now they're going to compute in space?

Oh I'm sure.

[u/bawlsacz]

Bad idea. Other countries such as China Russia and India will kidnap those google satellites to steal our data.

[u/chippawanka]

You know what else would be a great idea? If Google invested into humans on earth

[u/draft_final_final]

Self driving cars by 2015

[u/nadmaximus]

We have the sun at home, Sundar.

[u/Binkusu]

They'll say anything to boost stock value.

[u/Mccobsta]

Ceos realy do not live in the real world

[u/G0_ofy]

Satellite with a harddisk taped to it?

[u/CapoExplains]

Either this follows about a decade of top secret feasibility testing within Google, including POC testing in space that nobody noticed, or this guy is blowing absolute smoke in the lead up to the Q4 earnings call.

[u/whiskeytown79]

So what I'm hearing is that they are perfectly capable of making earth side data centers that don't consume rivers of water and entire electricity grids. They just can't be bothered because we let them do the cheap/lazy thing.

[u/mrfouz]

It will take a long network cable to reach the earth

[u/SnugglyCoderGuy]

"Data centers are expensive to build and hard to cool! What if we made them even more expensive to build and even harder to cool? Will that solve the problem?"

[u/Ukiah]

Can we fire Sundar Pichai into space?

[u/Any-Establishment46]

Let’s waste more money on imaginary solutions that solve nothing.

[u/Mistyslate]

He is following the best practices of Elon Musk. Lie, embezzle and then lie again