The companies you listed have great synergy with Google's core business. What's Google's play with SpaceX? Data centers in space?
The companies you listed have great synergy with Google's core business. What's Google's play with SpaceX? Data centers in space?
Google X was building Loon at least a decade ago to solve internet connectivity with laser-networked high-altitude balloons. They clearly benefit structurally from expanding access to the internet to the unconnected population.
So on that front, while I didn’t guess this, it does sound like a good investment.
Furthermore, while I am skeptical about the “DC in space” thing in the short term, and Musk’s timelines are, generously, something like P99.9 outcomes, it seems plausible that in 10 years it might make sense. And at that point Google will want to put their TPUs in orbit, too.
Presumably Starlink for routing throughout space. Google does under-sea cables and domestic internet access too.
They invested in SpaceX long before Starlink was a thibgy
Starlink wasn't working yet, but had been announced as a thing they intended to do.
Ehh, more like Starlink was a thing they said they'd do to justify the investment at the time. Just like they said they'd build an assembly line mass producing Falcon 1's for small launch market, or send a Starship full of artists around the Moon. The first prototypes were three years later.
Having your exponentially more expensive fleet of satellites constantly burning up versus dedicated cables that rarely need replacing
The big use-case for Starlink is typically for people in locations without dedicated cables.
All energy generated on earth contributes to global warming, even solar panels which decrease Earth's albedo. If you care about climate change and the earth you should want the datacenters to be in space.
The earth is limited in the amount of thermal energy it can radiate.
Ah yes, burn thousands of tonnes of methane (assuming Spacex) to launch a data centre satellite into an orbit, then burn thousands more to maintain it and update compute or burn the entire thing in the upper atmosphere, to avoid contributing to global warming by not burning all of that fuel and dry mass.
Uh, that's not how global warming works, you know.
YouTube is probably one of the few companies that could benefit from data centers in space.
Rather than co-locating media servers into ISPs you can stick them into space so they're just closer.
Space in NYC isn't cheap. Space in space is free.
> Space in NYC isn't cheap. Space in space is free.
... what?
Say what you want about starship etc etc, but space in space is far from free and will be for a long time.
Google has a strong interest in everybody getting better internet (see Fiber, Loon, Fi, etc), which lines up well with Starlink.
It's telecom infrastructure to increase the number of people who have internet in order to increase the number of people using Google. They might have been considering having satellite internet in Android phones.
They had a big early investment back when Google was doing more crazy out of scope things.
Low cost payloads to space can unlock lots.
starlink cellular connection for android in future
Similar of SpaceX and Twitter I guess
Google Cloud, low latency cross-continental links, etc.
I don't think gcp customers were hoping for higher latency, 5% packet loss, and modem speeds.
lower latency. You forget about cross-satelite laser links that shorten the latency for cross-continental traffic.
Everything else you said draws from some regular consumer experiences. That's not what I am talking about here.
One would presume connectivity and services in space as industry and services spread there. Asteroid mining, on orbit manufacturing, space colonies/tourism, data centers in space, centers for working outside traditional government jurisdiction.