Google and UCSD's move is quite interesting: retiring Pixel devices and stripping them down to bare boards to run Linux, managing them with Kubernetes, and assembling 2,000 phones into a small data center, launching in 2026, with costs and environmental impact all accounted for.

Google and UCSD are reassembling the motherboards of 2,000 decommissioned Pixel phones into a low-carbon cloud data center by removing screens, batteries, cases, cameras, and other non-essential components, retaining the motherboards and replacing Android with Linux to enable resource sharing. Every 25-50 motherboards form a group and are scheduled by Kubernetes. Preliminary experiments show that a micro-cluster of 20 phones can handle peak homework loads of over 75 students in parallel computing courses. The team estimates that the computing power of 2,000 phones is equivalent to 50 traditional servers, with plans to launch in Fall 2026.