Google has recently expressed investing up to $1 billion in Elon Musk's private space transportation company, SpaceX. According to Business Insider, Google is most interested in Musk's ambitions to use satellites to beam low-cost internet around the world. 

Musk has said that his project to create a global communications project would cost at least $10 billion and take five years to build. TIME reports that Google's money could help SpaceX - which has so far concentrated on making spacecraft and launch rockets - to branch out into making the satellites it would need to build its network.

The investment would help Google in that spreading the internet around the world could boost the number of people who have access to its services. A Google spokesperson stated, "Internet connectivity significantly improves people's lives... Yet two thirds of the world has no access at all. It's why we're so focused on new technologies-from Project Loon to Titan Aerospace-that have the potential to bring hundreds of millions more people online in the coming years."

For those who may not know, Project Loon uses helium-filled inflatables beam the Internet down to earth as they sail past on the wind. Google recently bought Titan Aerospace, which is a drone company that makes high-flying solar powered drones.

With an extra $1 billion, SpaceX could also have more edge against its biggest competitor, Richard Branson's Virgin Group. Branson also wants to bring low-cost internet access around the world to billions who don't yet have it, and has recently urged Musk to join forces with him. According to TIME, he has done so because he claims that there physically isn't space in the radio spectrum for a competitor.

As of now, neither Google nor SpaceX have the rights to the radio spectrum, leaving a lot of big questions and challenges for Musk's space venture. However, he seems very open to Google's investment, and there's no telling how much could get done with teamwork.