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Planet Labs partnering with Google on Sunroof project involving TPUs in space; Sundar Pichai expects most compute spending to move to orbit within 10 years
Will Marshall· Planet Labs· Space· 2026-03-29· about Google, Planet Labs (GOOGL)
“Suncatcher is going well. It's early days just to recap that project. This is about putting their TPUs into space. This is what we're doing right this second for them. As Sundar put it, I think within 10 years he expects most compute spending to go into orbit. That's a big amount of money. That's a huge, huge market to go after.”
Why it matters
Google is investing in space-based compute infrastructure via Planet satellites. This validates the emerging market for orbital compute and suggests sustained demand for satellite bus capacity.
Investment implication
Space-based compute could become a major new revenue driver. Companies providing power systems, thermal management, radiation-hardened components, and satellite bus architecture may see increased demand from cloud providers testing orbital infrastructure.