Google will launch its first Project Suncatcher test satellite, called MVP, on October 1 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 as part of the Transporter-18 rideshare mission. The refrigerator-sized craft carries four of Google's custom TPU AI chips and roughly one kilowatt of solar power, and it uses a spacecraft body built by satellite imagery firm Planet Labs rather than a custom-built Google design. The test mission will run for only a few months.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-24
Google will send a satellite carrying its Tensor Processing Units into low Earth orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on October 1st, as part of Project Suncatcher. The mission aims to test how the chips withstand spaceflight stress, radiation, and thermal extremes, with a cooling system using heat pipes and radiators also being trialed. Google plans to launch two more satellites next year as part of a broader effort toward a constellation of chip-equipped satellites.
theverge.com
· 2026-09-24
VentureBeat's July VB Pulse survey of 170 AI infrastructure buyers found 39.4% plan to evaluate non-Nvidia accelerators like AWS Trainium, Google TPU, AMD Instinct or Intel Gaudi over the next year, versus 25.3% who plan to evaluate Nvidia's next-gen Blackwell GPUs. Despite this evaluation gap, the share of respondents expecting to switch platforms within three months actually dropped from 38.3% to 28.8%, even as usage and infrastructure activity rose across the board.
venturebeat.com
· 2026-09-02
GoKawiil