Google plans to transform retired smartphones into low-carbon computing clusters, aiming to reduce the environmental impact of its AI-powered data centres.
The initiative is in collaboration with UC San Diego
Jun 15, 2026
10:01 am
What's the storyGoogle is working on a project to repurpose old smartphones into low-carbon computing clusters.
The initiative, in collaboration with researchers from the University of California San Diego, aims to reduce the environmental impact of computing.
Researchers are turning old Pixel phones into a data center – and they outperform some server hardware
Researchers recycle old phones and cluster them into ‘computing platforms’ — says processors on modern smartphones deliver higher single-core performance than comparable multicore servers
Google vuole trasformare gli smartphone che non usate più in server
2,000 retired Google Pixel phones get a second life as a private cloud
A low-carbon computing platform from your retired phones
Recycling: Alte Smartphones werden zu Server-Clustern für Studierende
Così duemila smartphone sono diventati un data center
That dead phone in your drawer could power the next AI data center
Google ricicla 2.000 vecchi smartphone e li trasforma in un data center a basse emissioni
Учёные превратили списанные смартфоны в недорогой и эффективный дата-центр
Google Research frames the project around "embodied carbon," the emissions tied to manufacturing devices in the first place.…
This could potentially hit two birds with one stone — reduce e-waste and reduce data center component demand.
Dubbed as "phone cluster computing"
¿Tu viejo celular puede ser parte de la nube? El ambicioso plan de Google y la Universidad de San Diego para un futuro sustentable
Ricercatori dell'Universit� della California di San Diego, con il supporto di Google, stanno realizzando un datacenter composto…
You might say the system packs two kilapixels of compute
