Google’s “Project Suncatcher” is a “moonshot” with a 10-year-plus timeline, designed as an escape plan from Earth’s looming resource crisis. The company’s research, released Tuesday, outlines a strategy to flee the “impact on terrestrial resources” caused by the $3 trillion AI boom.
The “crisis” on Earth is twofold: a “rising concern” over carbon emissions from power-hungry datacenters, and the “land and water resources needed to cool” them. This model is not sustainable at the scale AI demands.
Google’s “escape plan” is to move 400 miles up. “Project Suncatcher” aims to create an AI infrastructure that needs zero land and zero water. It will be powered by 8x-more-efficient solar panels, solving the emissions problem.
This is a long-term play. The first “prototypes” don’t launch until 2027. Full economic viability, when space costs are “comparable” to Earth, isn’t expected until “the middle of the 2030s.” This is a “working backward” plan to solve a 2035 problem.
While “significant engineering challenges remain,” this 10-year plan, along with similar moves from Musk and Nvidia, signals a major pivot. The tech industry has decided Earth is too small for its ambitions and is now building the infrastructure to leave.