Here’s why Google wants to invest $1 billion into SpaceX

According to the Wall Street Journal and The Information, Google is ready to invest $1 billion into Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

The tech giant is largely interested in SpaceX’s plans to use satellites to beam low-cost internet around the world. CEO Elon Musk, while speaking with BusinessWeek about the project, said that he wants to create a global communications system that would be “larger than anything that has been talked about to date”. He added that it would take at least five years and $10 billion to build. 

Google, meanwhile, has been investigating this technology for a while now. 

“Internet connectivity significantly improves people's lives,” a Google spokesperson told The Guardian in June 2014 about its $1 billion internet-spreading ambitions. “Yet two thirds of the world have no access at all. It's why we're so focused on new technologies—from Project Loon to Titan Aerospace—that have the potential to bring hundreds of millions more people online in the coming years.”

Project Loon refers to the company’s attempt at using super-pressured, high-altitude balloons that hover near space and are equipped with the technology necessary to provide 3G-like Internet connectivity to towns and villages below.

In regards to Titan Aerospace, Google actually bought the solar-powered drone company in April; this was followed by its acquisition of satellite company Skybox Imaging in June 2014. Google said that buy purchasing both companies, it would have the technology necessary to further its goals of improving global internet access. 

Specifically, the technology Google bought included Titan Aerospace’s drones, which can stay aloft for five years at speeds of 54mph while carrying payloads of up to 72lbs. They are considered the world’s first atmospheric satellites to be powered by the sun, and in terms of construction, they’re cheaper to produce than today’s orbital satellites. 

From Skybox, the company gained access to a high-performance micro-satellite that measures about the size of a phone book and consumes less power than a 100-watt lightbulb.

With their investment into SpaceX, it is expected Google will share information related to the inner-workings of these technologies in hopes of improving the former company’s successes with their endeavor.

So far, Musk has discussed the idea of using optical-laser technology in SpaceX satellites to provide Internet to those below. The problem with this approach, though, is that lasers cannot pass through clouds like radio waves can, and neither SpaceX nor Google have the rights to the radio spectrum, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

In an attempt to get around this hurdle, Google hired satellite-industry celebrity Greg Wyler in 2013, but he left the company by the summer of 2014 to start his own satellite venture, and he took his rights to the radio spectrum with him.

The other challenge in the way of this program actually being implemented is the installation of ground-based antennas and computer terminals to receive the satellite signals. These kinds of plans will be very expensive which could be why Musk, who has always been a bit skeptical of accepting outside funding that might reduce his control over SpaceX, might actually be open to the idea of accepting Google’s money.

Via Business Insider

Editor's note: The deal has since gone through. Google and Fidelity Investments have officially invested $1bn into Musk's SpaceX. Together, the two companies own just under 10% of Musk's space business, joining existing investors Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Valor Equity Partners, and Capricorn.