Google Just Put AI Chips in Orbit. These 5 Stocks Could Build What Comes Next.

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Editor’s note: “Google Just Put AI Chips in Orbit. These 5 Stocks Could Build What Comes Next.” was previously published in September 2026 with the title, “5 Space Stocks to Buy as Google Takes AI Into Orbit With Project Suncatcher.” It has since been updated to include the most relevant information available.

Imagine waking up in 2090 to a thin blue sunrise beyond your bedroom window.

You’re several hundred miles above Earth, starting a six-month assignment at a commercial research station. Down the hall, scientists are developing medicines in microgravity. A cargo ship outside your window is preparing for the next leg of its journey to a lunar outpost.

Before breakfast, you ask your AI assistant to review the overnight experiments and adjust the day’s schedule.

You barely think about where the computing happens. But somewhere beyond the station, a cluster of satellites is processing those requests, drawing electricity from sunlight and exchanging data through laser links.

An orbital data center. As ordinary to you as a server farm in Virginia was to your grandparents.

That’s one possible future. But getting there would require cheaper launches, reliable hardware and businesses that can earn a return on the enormous expense of operating in space.

For investors today, though, there’s a more immediate question: Which companies could get paid to build the first pieces of that future?

We’re about to find out.

On Oct. 1, Alphabet (GOOGL) put its first Project Suncatcher prototype into orbit. Developed with Planet Labs (PL), the satellite will test how Google’s Tensor Processing Units (the custom chips it uses for AI) perform in orbit.

The mission has a modest but essential assignment: Find out how that hardware handles the journey and the conditions waiting above Earth.

Its results could help determine what engineers build next, and which suppliers they need to build it.

That’s why I’m watching orbital data centers. Long before computing in space becomes routine, the effort to make it work could create demand for solar power systems, specialized electronics and communications equipment.

And several publicly traded companies already make the kinds of technology those systems will need.

That supply chain is also a key part of my XPANSE thesis: how the convergence of AI, energy, robotics and space could create opportunities for the businesses supplying the buildout. Later, I’ll show you where to find my full XPANSE briefing, including a free investment recommendation. But first, let’s look at what Google’s experiment could mean for the companies helping take AI into orbit.

Why Google Thinks AI Compute Could Move Into Space

Back in April, we explored the case for moving AI infrastructure into orbit. The underlying idea remains compelling: If power availability limits where we can build computing capacity, finding a new source of power could expand the opportunity.

In the right orbit, Google estimates that solar panels can generate up to eight times as much energy as comparable panels on Earth, with nearly continuous sunlight reducing the need for batteries.

Project Suncatcher would use that electricity where it is generated. Google envisions satellites carrying AI processors and communicating through optical links, eventually functioning as a distributed computing system. Its original research announcement describes the engineering work needed to make that possible.

The appeal of this is easy enough to understand, but a computing facility that generates its own electricity in orbit would have a different set of constraints from one waiting for a connection to the terrestrial grid.

And those different constraints could create a different set of winners.

Think about the hardware required: efficient solar cells, deployable arrays, reliable electronics, communications equipment and systems that can keep working without a technician walking down the aisle.

Every one of those requirements represents a problem somebody needs to solve, and potentially a product somebody needs to buy.

What Project Suncatcher Has to Prove in Orbit

Google’s latest update identifies the immediate priorities: surviving launch, operating through radiation exposure and managing heat. Ground testing has been encouraging, but an orbital mission will expose the hardware to conditions a laboratory cannot fully reproduce.

Cooling deserves particular attention. There is no airflow in a vacuum to carry heat away; Google is testing heat pipes and radiators to move heat out of its chips and reject it into space.

Then comes the networking test. Google plans to put two satellites in orbit in 2027 to evaluate the laser connections needed for distributed AI workloads.

Those are separate milestones. First, establish how the hardware operates in space. Then test whether multiple spacecraft can work together effectively.

For investors, each stage should sharpen the questions we ask.

Which components perform reliably? What needs redesigning? Which suppliers win follow-on work? And how much does the next version cost?

That’s how a promising concept starts becoming an investable business. The results need to support the next round of spending.