This Alphabet ‘Moonshot’ spinout is using beams of light to bring fiber-speed internet to Rio’s favelas

Taara, which started nine years ago as part of Alphabet’s “Moonshot Factory,” X, is building what could be the future high-speed internet. The company, which spun out of Alphabet in March 2025, transmits data between small terminals using narrow, invisible beams of light—it’s called “free space optical communication.” It easily and inexpensively delivers internet access with the stability of wired fiber-optic connections to remote or tricky-to-wire locations. And it’s fast: Lightbridge, Taara’s