TL;DR
The idea of putting the machines that run artificial intelligence into orbit, where the sun never sets and the cold of space is free, has left the slide deck. Google has a refrigerator-sized satellite carrying four of its AI chips circling Earth right now, a startup flew an NVIDIA chip last year and is valued at $2.3 billion, and SpaceX has named its own planned constellation. If launch gets cheap enough and the heat problem gets solved, some of the world's computing could move off the ground and away from strained power grids. Nobody involved claims that is close: Google's own project lead says it will not be cheaper than a ground data center within five years. What has changed is that the question is now being tested with hardware instead of argued about.
Below the line, for paid subscribers: The full story: where it stands, how we got here and what's dated next; our Odds board on 5 milestones, starting with "Google launches its next two Suncatcher satellites by 2027"; our labeled speculation on what it adds up to; and every source.