Google potentially closing a major deal with AI startup Mechanize worth over 13,000 crore rupees

Students from Iran achieved victory at the third edition of the International Artificial Intelligence Olympiad (IOAI 2026), which took place from August 2 to 8 in Astana, Kazakhstan. IOAI is an international scientific AI olympiad for high school students, aimed at inspiring youth worldwide to study science, with a special focus on AI.

The competition serves as a platform for top AI students selected through national contests to exchange ideas and establish contacts. This promotes dialogue among students and the public regarding the possibilities and ethical issues of AI.

According to IRNA, Shayan Rezaeizadeh won the gold medal, Mohammad-Reza Darvishi and Mohammad-Amin Nazmfar received silver medals, and Mani Monjipour was awarded the bronze medal.

This year, over 120 teams participated, comprising more than 500 students from 103 countries and territories worldwide. Each country's participation was limited to two teams of four students, who worked under the guidance of a team leader. The Olympiad tests skills in machine learning, data science, and solving AI problems.

IOAI this year included three main modules. The first was the Individual Contest, where participants independently solved AI and machine learning tasks, demonstrating personal expertise in algorithm development, model training, and data analysis. The second was the Team Challenge, requiring teams to collaborate on complex, multifaceted AI problems that demanded coordination, diverse skills, and a creative approach.

The third module was the Generative AI Talent Expansion Contest (GAITE). This was a simplified version of the Individual Contest. The tasks in GAITE are similar to those in the Individual Contest, but the key difference is that GAITE participants are allowed to request hints. The GAITE contest has a separate leaderboard.

Previously, in 2025, an Iranian team of four high school students won two silver and two bronze medals at IOAI, held from August 2 to 9 in Beijing, China. According to IRIB, Arash Yousefnejad and Ali Shayan won silver medals, while Parsa Golestani and Radin Rahmani-Nodehi won bronze medals.

Elon Musk stated his vision that, within two to three years, the most economical way to obtain computational capacity for Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be in space. This perspective was presented by him in February of this year during the announcement of the merger between his companies SpaceX and xAI.

Initially, the concept envisions these specialized servers emerging as a network of satellites. Subsequently, with the advancement of lunar colonization, the Moon will become the location of these data centers.

Other entities have also shown interest in this concept: Alphabet, owner of Google, is planning similar initiatives, and Blue Origin, belonging to Jeff Bezos, has publicly declared that this idea represents the 'next step' in space endeavors.

In June, Musk advanced his ambition by presenting the AI1 satellite model, developed specifically for data processing in space and focused on AI. The established timeline points to the first launches in 2027 and the start of commercial operation at scale from 2028.

How the operation would work

In this operational model, the equipment responsible for sending and receiving requests would remain on Earth, while all computational processing would occur in the space environment. For example, in an interaction with ChatGPT, a user would send a query via mobile phone, a satellite would receive it, a space computer would execute the AI model, and the result would be returned to Earth via laser or radio waves.

This architecture could be particularly advantageous for tasks requiring batch processing, such as model training, analysis of large data volumes, satellite image processing, and scientific simulations.

An AI1 satellite operates relatively simply, being equipped with solar panels for energy generation, a GPU rack dedicated to computational processing, and a radiator to dissipate heat generated by the operation. One unit of this type has a continuous power of 120 kW, which is comparable to the power of an Nvidia GB300 AI rack. According to SpaceXAI, Musk estimates that it would be possible to place between 30 and 50 of these satellites in orbit per launch, achieving an annual computational capacity equivalent to 100 GW of energy processing.

To realize this goal, SpaceXAI is building a factory in the state of Texas exclusively for these satellites and their future successors, named Gigasat.

Challenges and obstacles

Putting the Moon aside for a moment and focusing only on the proposal of a satellite constellation, the technology required to manufacture these devices and place them in orbit is already available. However, there are several issues suggesting that the realization of this project will not happen as quickly as announced by Musk.

Conclusion: distant implementation

IEEE Spectrum magazine conducted an analysis of a hypothetical scenario, proposing a constellation composed of 4,300 satellites with an aggregate capacity of 1 GW. Each satellite would be equipped with a solar panel measuring 1,024 square meters, capable of producing 250 kilowatts. Furthermore, the data center integrated into each satellite would contain a minimum of 175 GPUs.

The total estimated cost for this network would amount to approximately US$ 51 billion, including launch costs and five years of operating expenses. In contrast, an equivalent terrestrial system would cost about US$ 16 billion over the same period. It is worth noting that if the operation were carried out on the Moon, located approximately 384,000 km from Earth, the cost would be significantly higher.

Therefore, even if Musk presents short-term projections for commercial operation, it is more likely that in the coming years, only tests and demonstrations will take place, not a scalable system. It is estimated that it will take more than a decade for this project to become a reality, assuming the AI bubble does not collapse beforehand.

Uzbekistan's satellite Samarkand-2028, launched on August 5 in cooperation with the Chinese company STAR.VISION, successfully transmitted its first image of Earth from orbit. This was reported by the press service of the Uzbekistan space agency, Uzbekkosmos, noting that the picture was received several hours after the launch.

The obtained image shows Athens, the capital of Greece. The satellite launch took place on August 5 from the Hayan spaceport located in China, in the Yellow Sea. The launch process was broadcast live on the official Uzbekkosmos YouTube channel.

The Samarkand-2028 satellite is equipped with an artificial intelligence module developed by Uzbekkosmos specialists. This module is designed to process hyperspectral data directly in orbit.