#tpus

#tpus

Google Research has unveiled Project Suncatcher, a research initiative exploring how solar powered satellite constellations equipped with Tensor Processing Units TPUs could one day enable large scale artificial intelligence computation in space. The project is part of an early stage study into scalable AI infrastructure that operates beyond Earth's surface, leveraging the continuous solar energy available in orbit. According to Google, satellites operating in sun synchronous orbits can collect solar power almost continuously, up to eight times more efficiently than ground based systems.

It was probably always when, not if, Google would add its name to the list of companies intrigued by the potential of orbiting data centers. Google announced Tuesday a new initiative, named Project Suncatcher, to examine the feasibility of bringing artificial intelligence to space. The idea is to deploy swarms of satellites in low-Earth orbit, each carrying Google's AI accelerator chips designed for training, content generation, synthetic speech and vision, and predictive modeling. Google calls these chips Tensor Processing Units, or TPUs.

Although the TPU chips withstood radiation simulations in a particle accelerator, Google still faces hurdles ahead. According to Google's research paper, which Pichai posted in a thread, the final product would involve fleets of solar-powered satellites connected by optical links to exchange data, said the paper. Pichai said in the X post that thermal management and reliability are both challenging.

The two companies announced the deal on Thursday, with Anthropic pitching it as "expanded capacity" that the company will use to meet surging customer demand and allow it to conduct "more thorough testing, alignment research, and responsible deployment at scale." Google's take on the deal is that it will enable Anthropic to "train and serve the next generations of Claude models," and involves "additional Google Cloud services, which will empower its research and development teams with leading AI-optimized infrastructure for years to come."

Discussions are still in the early stages, but Google and Claude creator Anthropic are considering a cloud agreement worth tens of billions of dollars. This would allow Anthropic to use Google's AI computing power. Google, itself an investor in Anthropic, would already see a significant return on its investment under the agreement. It has invested approximately $3 billion in two investment rounds in the AI company.