Starcloud raises $170 million Series A to build data centers in space
The YC-backed startup hit a $1.1B valuation and launched the first satellite with an Nvidia H100 GPU.
Space compute startup Starcloud has secured a $170 million Series A funding round, led by Benchmark and EQT Ventures, catapulting its valuation to $1.1 billion just 17 months after its Y Combinator demo day. This massive investment underscores growing venture interest in offloading data centers to orbit amid Earth-bound resource and political constraints. The company has already deployed its first satellite, which notably carries an Nvidia H100 GPU—reportedly the first terrestrial GPU in orbit—and has used it to train an AI model and run a version of Google's Gemini.
Starcloud's roadmap is ambitious. Later this year, it plans to launch 'Starcloud 2,' a more powerful satellite featuring multiple GPUs, including an Nvidia Blackwell chip and an AWS server blade. The long-term vision hinges on 'Starcloud 3,' a 200-kilowatt, three-ton spacecraft designed to launch from SpaceX's Starship rocket. CEO Philip Johnston believes this could be the first orbital data center cost-competitive with terrestrial ones, targeting energy costs around $0.05 per kWh—but only if Starship achieves commercial launch costs of ~$500/kg. Until then, the company will continue launching smaller versions on SpaceX's Falcon 9.
- Raised $170M Series A at a $1.1B valuation, led by Benchmark and EQT Ventures.
- Deployed first satellite with an Nvidia H100 GPU, used to train an AI model in orbit.
- Plans future 'Starcloud 3' spacecraft launching on SpaceX Starship to achieve cost-competitive orbital compute.
Why It Matters
It pioneers orbital AI compute, aiming to bypass Earth's data center bottlenecks and create a new market for in-space processing.