X Development

X Development LLC, doing business as X (formerly Google X), is an American semi-secret research and development facility and organization founded by Google in January 2010. X has its headquarters about a mile and a half from Google's corporate headquarters, the Googleplex, in Mountain View, California.

According to an official blog post from the company, X's mission is to "invent and launch 'moonshot' technologies that [they] hope could make the world a radically better place." A moonshot is defined by X as the intersection of a big problem, a radical solution, and breakthrough technology. Work at X is overseen by entrepreneur scientist Astro Teller, as CEO and "Captain of Moonshots". The lab started with the development of Google's self-driving car.

In April 2024, X introduced Project Bellwether, an initiative applying artificial intelligence to Earth observation data to forecast and respond to natural disasters such as wildfires, floods, and hurricanes. The project has developed tools to predict wildfire risk up to five years in advance, assess damage to infrastructure following extreme weather events, and support insurance companies in evaluating risk across portfolios. Bellwether's system processes petabytes of geospatial data and incorporates more than 20 years of environmental records. Its tools have been deployed for wildfire planning by U.S. state agencies and to assist recovery efforts after Hurricane Helene. TIME named Bellwether one of the Best Inventions of 2024, and Fast Company named it one of the Next Best Things In Tech in AI and Data for 2024.

In November 2024, X announced the Moonshot for Circularity, a project to accelerate the recycling and reuse of plastics and other difficult-to-process materials. The initiative uses hyperspectral imaging, artificial intelligence, and large-scale data processing to identify and sort plastics at a molecular level, aiming to improve recycling efficiency and reduce waste.

Tapestry is an X project described as the lab's "moonshot for the electric grid." Its mission is to make the grid visible so that "everyone can access reliable, affordable, and clean energy." The team is building an AI-powered platform that unifies data across transmission and distribution systems to help utilities plan, operate, and modernize their networks. Key tools include the Grid Planning Tool, which enables long-term grid simulations, and GridAware, which uses computer vision to detect equipment issues and automate inspections.

Tapestry is collaborating with grid operators in several countries, including Chile, where its tools are used in national transmission planning; PJM Interconnection in the United States, where it is helping address interconnection backlogs; and utilities in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Australia, and South Africa.

Chorus is a project that aims to improve the supply chain through sensors, software, and machine learning tools. The team had been working on the project for 3.5 years before it was revealed in March 2022.

The project spun out to be an independent company in April 2025.