Google (谷歌) launched a prototype satellite carrying a Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) chip; communications are established and satellite operations remain normal.

The satellite is a prototype intended to test a Google Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) chip in the space environment. The supplied reports describe a recent launch, without specifying its exact date, launch vehicle, orbit, or TPU generation.

Google said its team had established communications with the satellite and that the satellite was operating normally. That is a spacecraft-status update; the supplied messages do not report completed chip-performance tests or machine-learning benchmarks.

Google places the experiment within a long-term research effort into scalable machine-learning infrastructure in space. Its stated purpose is to investigate whether such infrastructure can be deployed, rather than announce an operational orbital data center or commercially available compute capacity.