Can AI chips survive in space? Google is about to find out

For years, the biggest constraint on artificial intelligence has been what happens on the ground. AI models need enormous amounts of computing power, and that means data centres need vast supplies of electricity, cooling systems and physical space. As demand for AI continues to grow, technology companies are beginning to look somewhere very different for the infrastructure they will need next that is above earth.

Google is preparing to test whether some of that infrastructure could eventually operate in orbit. On October 1, the company plans to send a prototype satellite into low Earth orbit aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission.