Google plans test of space chips in Project Suncatcher

Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Thursday it would launch a prototype satellite next week in its first in-orbit test of Project Suncatcher, a research effort to explore whether space could potentially host large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) computing infrastructure.

Companies including Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) and Starcloud Inc are pursuing plans to deploy data centers in low Earth orbit, aiming to harness near-continuous sunlight to power energy-intensive AI computing and sidestep terrestrial constraints on electricity supplies.

The new mission, scheduled to fly on SpaceX’s upcoming Transporter-18 rideshare launch in partnership with satellite company Planet Labs PBC, is to assess how Google’s AI hardware withstands launch forces, radiation and extreme temperatures in low Earth orbit.

After the launch, it will send a prototype satellite carrying Google’s tensor processing units (TPUs) into low Earth orbit to assess if the AI chips can operate reliably in space.

Space radiation can disrupt or degrade electronics, including by causing data errors known as bit flips.

Google aims to test its TPUs while running AI workloads in a facility at the University of California, Davis, but that orbital testing is needed to understand how the hardware performs in the real environment, the company said.

The company will also evaluate its design to cool the power-intensive chips in the vacuum of space, where conventional airflow cooling is impossible, by combining heat pipes with radiators, it said.

Experts have said that the concept remains years from being commercially viable given high launch costs, engineering constraints and satellite production bottlenecks.

The first Suncatcher mission is designed to gather in-orbit data and identify potential failure points, rather than demonstrate an operational orbital data center, Google said.

It aims to launch two satellites next year to test the high-bandwidth laser links needed to connect future computing clusters, it said.

MINIMAL EXPECTATIONS: Analysts think that the two sides are likely to aim for ‘status quo’-level agreements, maintaining civility, without major trade breakthroughs US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) were set to meet yesterday to try to set up potential agreements on artificial intelligence (AI), tariffs and critical minerals for a summit in Washington this week between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).

The meetings at JPMorgan Chase & Co’s headquarters in Manhattan, which included US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, were due to start at about 10:30am on Sunday morning and were expected to run all day. Key topics would be the status of a US-China trade truce that is set to expire

GlobalFoundries Inc yesterday said it plans to accelerate global capacity optimization and expansion to accommodate exponential growth in radio frequency (RF) and other chips driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. Singapore will pay a vital role in the company’s capacity expansion, alongside production line optimizations across its manufacturing sites, GlobalFoundries Asia Pacific head Vincent Feng (范曾文) told a news conference in Hsinchu City.

“Many might be surprised to hear that the RF market is thriving now. We are gearing up for a massive capacity expansion, and it is all being driven by AI,” Feng said. He declined to disclose details of the

MORE DATA CENTERS: Microsoft’s Taiwan-area general manager said the corporation is looking to add two more data centers in northern Taiwan over the next few years Microsoft Corp plans to double its data centers in Taiwan from two facilities to four, Microsoft Taiwan general manager Sean Pien (卞志祥) said yesterday. “Over the past two to three years, we have consistently seen demand outstrip supply, and we expect that situation to continue over the next two to three years,” Pien said on the sidelines of a news conference in Taipei.

The data center sites would mainly be in northern Taiwan to meet customer demand and reduce the risk of operational disruptions caused by a single event, he said, without saying their exact locations. Microsoft enabled the first phase of

Berkshire Hathaway Inc has been synonymous with Warren Buffett. It falls to his oldest son, Howard Buffett, to keep the conglomerate’s “culture” alive. Friday’s announcement that Warren Buffett, 96, stepped down as chairman means the longtime investor would no longer have a management role at the company he took over in 1965, or be a regular sounding board for Greg Abel, who succeeded him as chief executive officer in January.

Howard Buffett, 71, is assuming a different role as non-executive chairman, focused on preserving Berkshire’s culture and values. It is the latest move in a years-long leadership transition. “This one is really about