Eric Schmidt lands in Phoenix the week Relativity Space CEO maps out orbital data centers

Eric Schmidt flew from Whiteman Airport in Los Angeles to a private airstrip near Phoenix on May 20, a 67-minute hop in his Gulfstream G650ER (N652WE). The brief trip might look like routine movement between West Coast hubs—but it lands the same week the public rationale for his recent acquisition of Relativity Space is crystallizing into a concrete industrial vision.

According to reporting from Space Insider and Ars Technica this month, Schmidt has confirmed that his purchase of Relativity Space is tied to a plan to launch AI data centers into orbit. During April testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Schmidt warned that AI systems will require tens of gigawatts of new power capacity—unsustainable on Earth. A day later, he replied "Yes" to a reporter's speculation that the rocket company acquisition was meant to enable orbital computing hubs, per Ars Technica. Phoenix sits near aerospace supply chains and test ranges that could support such ambitions.

The flight follows a pattern of concentrated activity: on May 18, N652WE flew from Wisconsin to Los Angeles, then immediately repositioned to Whiteman. Schmidt, now CEO of the Long Beach-based rocket builder, has been shuttling between Southern California headquarters and potential partner or investor sites. Whether the Phoenix area becomes a staging ground for Terran R launches or a site for ground-based telemetry support, the trip fits a broader push to turn an audacious idea—orbiting server farms powered by uninterrupted solar energy—into something that might actually fly.