tech
Starcloud raises $250 million for orbital data centers as launch options dry up
There's about to be a big fight to secure access to space.
TL;DR
- Starcloud raised a $250 million extension to its Series A funding round, bringing the total to $420 million and valuing the company at $2.3 billion.
- The funds will be used to open a larger manufacturing facility and advance its Starcloud-3 orbital data center spacecraft for SpaceX's Starship.
- CEO Philip Johnston is securing launch capacity due to market constraints, with the Falcon 9 program ending in 2028.
- Starcloud plans to launch two Starcloud-2 satellites in 2027 for orbital inference tasks, including for U.S. government agencies.
- The company is working with Nvidia on space-ready GPUs, with Nvidia investing $25 million in Starcloud.
- Starcloud is the only known company operating a Nvidia H100 terrestrial data center GPU in orbit and the first to train a model using it.
- Nvidia's purpose-built GPU for space, the Vera Rubin Space-1 chip, is expected to fly into orbit in late 2028.
- The company has 25 employees and is developing production lines at a 100,000-square-foot facility in Woodinville, Washington.