Month: November 2025
Google’s Project Suncatcher: a moonshot project to power ML/AI compute from space
Overview:
Google’s Project Suncatcher will equip solar-powered satellite constellations with TPUs and free-space optical links to one day scale machine learning (ML) and AI compute in space. The sun is the ultimate energy source and solar panels can be much more productive in orbit, thereby significantly reducing the need for heavy batteries. With energy use being a key consideration for terrestrial data centers, especially with the ongoing and seemingly relentless need to scale up for ML/AI, space might be the right location for AI.
Goals and Objectives of Project Suncatcher:
References:
https://research.google/blog/exploring-a-space-based-scalable-ai-infrastructure-system-design/
https://blog.google/technology/research/google-project-suncatcher/
https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/suncatcher_paper.pdf
Muon Space in deal with Hubble Network to deploy world’s first satellite-powered Bluetooth network
Nokia’s Bell Labs to use adapted 4G and 5G access technologies for Indian space missions
5G connectivity from space: Exolaunch contract with Sateliot for launch and deployment of LEO satellites
Hubble Network Makes Earth-to-Space Bluetooth Satellite Connection; Life360 Global Location Tracking Network
AT&T deal with AST SpaceMobile to provide wireless service from space
Nokia and Rohde & Schwarz collaborate on AI-powered 6G receiver years before IMT 2030 RIT submissions to ITU-R WP5D
Nokia and the test and measurement firm Rohde & Schwarz have created and successfully tested a “6G” radio receiver that uses AI technologies to overcome one of the biggest anticipated challenges of 6G network rollouts, coverage limitations inherent in 6G’s higher-frequency spectrum.
–>This is truly astonishing as ITU-R WP5D doesn’t even plan to evaluate 6G RIT/SRITs till February 2027 when the first submissions are invited to be presented.
Nokia Bell Labs developed the receiver and validated it using 6G test equipment and methodologies from Rohde & Schwarz. The two companies will unveil a proof-of-concept receiver at the Brooklyn 6G Summit on November 6, 2025. Nokia says, “the machine learning capabilities in the receiver greatly boost uplink distance, enhancing coverage for future 6G networks. This will help operators roll out 6G over their existing 5G footprints, reducing deployment costs and accelerating time to market.”
Image Credit: Rohde & Schwarz
Nokia Bell Labs and Rohde & Schwarz have tested this new AI receiver under real world conditions, achieving uplink distance improvements over today’s receiver technologies ranging from 10% to 25%. The testbed comprises an R&S SMW200A vector signal generator, used for uplink signal generation and channel emulation. On the receive side, the newly launched FSWX signal and spectrum analyzer from Rohde & Schwarz is employed to perform the AI inference for Nokia’s AI receiver. In addition to enhancing coverage, the AI technology also demonstrates improved throughput and power efficiency, multiplying the benefits it will provide in the 6G era.
“One of the key issues facing future 6G deployments is the coverage limitations inherent in 6G’s higher-frequency spectrum. Typically, we would need to build denser networks with more cell sites to overcome this problem. By boosting the coverage of 6G receivers, however, AI technology will help us build 6G infrastructure over current 5G footprints,” said Peter Vetter, President, Core Research, Bell Labs, Nokia.
“Rohde & Schwarz is excited to collaborate with Nokia in pioneering AI-driven 6G receiver technology. Leveraging more than 90 years of experience in test and measurement, we’re uniquely positioned to support the development of next-generation wireless, allowing us to evaluate and refine AI algorithms at this crucial pre-standardization stage. This partnership builds on our long history of innovation and demonstrates our commitment to shaping the future of 6G,” said Michael Fischlein, VP, Spectrum & Network Analyzers, EMC and Antenna Test, Rohde & Schwarz.
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Last month, Nokia teamed up with rival kit vendor Ericsson to work on video coding standardization in preparation for 6G. The project, which also involved Berlin’s Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI), demonstrated a new video codec which they claim has higher compression efficiency than the current standards (H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC, and H.266/VVC) without significantly increasing complexity, and its wider aim is to strengthen Europe’s role in next generation standardization, we were told at the time.
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About Nokia:
At Nokia, we create technology that helps the world act together.
As a B2B technology innovation leader, we are pioneering networks that sense, think and act by leveraging our work across mobile, fixed and cloud networks. In addition, we create value with intellectual property and long-term research, led by the award-winning Nokia Bell Labs, which is celebrating 100 years of innovation.
With truly open architectures that seamlessly integrate into any ecosystem, our high-performance networks create new opportunities for monetization and scale. Service providers, enterprises and partners worldwide trust Nokia to deliver secure, reliable and sustainable networks today – and work with us to create the digital services and applications of the future
About Rohde & Schwarz:
Rohde & Schwarz is striving for a safer and connected world with its Test & Measurement, Technology Systems and Networks & Cybersecurity Divisions. For over 90 years, the global technology group has pushed technical boundaries with developments in cutting-edge technologies. The company’s leading-edge products and solutions empower industrial, regulatory and government customers to attain technological and digital sovereignty. The privately owned, Munich-based company can act independently, long-term and sustainably. Rohde & Schwarz generated a net revenue of EUR 3.16 billion in the 2024/2025 fiscal year (July to June). On June 30, 2025, Rohde & Schwarz had more than 15,000 employees worldwide.
References:
ITU-R WP5D IMT 2030 Submission & Evaluation Guidelines vs 6G specs in 3GPP Release 20 & 21
ITU-R WP 5D reports on: IMT-2030 (“6G”) Minimum Technology Performance Requirements; Evaluation Criteria & Methodology
Market research firms Omdia and Dell’Oro: impact of 6G and AI investments on telcos
Nvidia pays $1 billion for a stake in Nokia to collaborate on AI networking solutions
Highlights of Nokia’s Smart Factory in Oulu, Finland for 5G and 6G innovation
Verizon’s 6G Innovation Forum joins a crowded list of 6G efforts that may conflict with 3GPP and ITU-R IMT-2030 work
Qualcomm CEO: expect “pre-commercial” 6G devices by 2028
NGMN: 6G Key Messages from a network operator point of view
AI spending boom accelerates: Big tech to invest an aggregate of $400 billion in 2025; much more in 2026!
The biggest U.S. mega-cap tech companies are on track to invest an aggregate of $400 billion into artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives this year, a commitment they collectively indicate “is nowhere near enough.” Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon all have announced further AI spending increases in 2026. The investment community reacted favorably to the plans presented by Google and Amazon late this past week, though some apprehension was noted regarding the strategies outlined by Meta and Microsoft.
- Meta Platforms says it continues to experience capacity constraints as it simultaneously trains new AI models and supports existing product infrastructure. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg described an unsatiated appetite for more computing resources that Meta must work to fulfill to ensure it’s a leader in a fast-moving AI race. “We want to make sure we’re not underinvesting,” he said on an earnings call with analysts Wednesday after posting third-quarter results. Meta signaled in the earnings report that capital expenditures would be “notably larger” next year than in 2025, during which Meta expects to spend as much as $72 billion. He indicated that the company’s existing advertising business and platforms are operating in a “compute-starved state.” This condition persists because Meta is allocating more resources toward AI research and development efforts rather than bolstering existing operations.
- Microsoft reported substantial customer demand for its data-center-driven services, prompting plans to double its data center footprint over the next two years. Concurrently, Amazon is working aggressively to deploy additional cloud capacity to meet demand. Amy Hood, Microsoft’s chief financial officer, said: “We’ve been short [on computing power] now for many quarters. I thought we were going to catch up. We are not. Demand is increasing.” She further elaborated, “When you see these kinds of demand signals and we know we’re behind, we do need to spend.”
- Alphabet (Google’s parent company) reported that capital expenditures will jump from $85 billion to between $91 billion and $93 billion. Google CFO Anat Ashkenazi said the investments are already yielding returns: “We already are generating billions of dollars from AI in the quarter. But then across the board, we have a rigorous framework and approach by which we evaluate these long-term investments.”
- Amazon has not provided a specific total dollar figure for its planned AI investment in 2026. However, the company has announced it expects its total capital expenditures (capex) in 2026 to be even higher than its 2025 projection of $125 billion, with the vast majority of this spending dedicated to AI and related infrastructure for Amazon Web Services (AWS).
- Apple: Announced it is also increasing its AI investments, though its overall spending remains smaller in comparison to the other tech giants.
As big as the spending projections were this week, they look pedestrian compared with OpenAI, which has announced roughly $1 trillion worth of AI infrastructure deals of late with partners including Nvidia , Oracle and Broadcom.
Despite the big capex tax write-offs (due to the 2025 GOP tax act) there is a large degree of uncertainty regarding the eventual outcomes of this substantial AI infrastructure spending. The companies themselves, along with numerous AI proponents, assert that these investments are essential for machine-learning systems to achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI), a state where they surpass human intelligence.
Yet skeptics question whether investing billions in large-language models (LLMs), the most prevalent AI system, will ultimately achieve that objective. They also highlight the limited number of paying users for existing technology and the prolonged training period required before a global workforce can effectively utilize it.
During investor calls following the earnings announcements, analysts directed incisive questions at company executives. On Microsoft’s call, one analyst voiced a central market concern, asking: “Are we in a bubble?” Similarly, on the call for Google’s parent company, Alphabet, another analyst questioned: “What early signs are you seeing that gives you confidence that the spending is really driving better returns longer term?”
Bank of America (BofA) credit strategists Yuri Seliger and Sohyun Marie Lee write in a client note that capital spending by five of the Magnificent Seven megacap tech companies (Amazon.com, Alphabet, and Microsoft, along with Meta and Oracle) has been growing even faster than their prodigious cash flows. “These companies collectively may be reaching a limit to how much AI capex they are willing to fund purely from cash flows,” they write. Consensus estimates of AI capex suggest will climb to 94% of operating cash flows, minus dividends and share repurchases, in 2025 and 2026, up from 76% in 2024. That’s still less than 100% of cash flows, so they don’t need to borrow to fund spending, “but it’s getting close,” they add.
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Google, which projected a rise in its full-year capital expenditures from $85 billion to a range of $91 billion to $93 billion, indicated that these investments were already proving profitable. Google’s Ashkenazi stated: “We already are generating billions of dollars from AI in the quarter. But then across the board, we have a rigorous framework and approach by which we evaluate these long-term investments.”
Microsoft reported that it expects to face capacity shortages that will affect its ability to power both its current businesses and AI research needs until at least the first half of the next year. The company noted that its cloud computing division, Azure, is absorbing “most of the revenue impact.”
Amazon informed investors of its expedited efforts to bring new capacity online, citing its ability to immediately monetize these investments.
“You’re going to see us continue to be very aggressive in investing capacity because we see the demand,” said Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy. “As fast as we’re adding capacity right now, we’re monetizing it.”
Meta’s chief financial officer, Susan Li, stated that the company’s capital expenditures—which have already nearly doubled from last year to $72 billion this year—will grow “notably larger” in 2026, though specific figures were not provided. Meta brought this year’s biggest investment-grade corporate bond deal to market, totaling some $30 billion, the latest in a parade of recent data-center borrowing.
Apple confirmed during its earnings call it is also increasing investments in AI . However, its total spending levels remain significantly lower compared to the outlays planned by the other major technology firms.
Skepticism and Risk:
While proponents argue the investments are necessary for AGI and offer a competitive advantage, skeptics question if huge spending (capex) on AI infrastructure and large-language models will achieve this goal and point to limited paying users for current AI technology. Meta CEO Zuckerberg addressed this by telling investors the company would “simply pivot” if its AGI spending strategy proves incorrect.
The mad scramble by mega tech companies and Open AI to build AI data centers is largely relying on debt markets, with a slew of public and private mega deals since September. Hyperscalers would have to spend 94% of operating cash flow to pay for their AI buildouts so are turning to debt financing to help defray some of that cost, according to Bank of America. Unlike earnings per share, cash flow can’t be manipulated by companies. If they spend more on AI than they generate internally, they have to finance the difference.
Hyperscaler debt taken on so far this year have raised almost as much money as all debt financings done between 2020 and 2024, the BofA research said. BofA calculates $75 billion of AI-related public debt offerings just in the past two months!
In bubbles, everyone gets caught up in the idea that spending on the hot theme will deliver vast profits — eventually. When the bubble is big enough, it shifts the focus of the market as a whole from disliking capital expenditure, and hating speculative capital spending in particular, to loving it. That certainly seems the case today with surging AI spending. For much more, please check-out the References below.
References:
