Starcloud, a startup focused on deploying AI inference satellites in orbit, has secured an additional $250 million to its March $170 million Series A funding round, according to TechCrunch. The extension values the company at $2.3 billion and will support the expansion of its manufacturing operations and the development of its largest orbital data center spacecraft, Starcloud-3. The satellite is intended to launch on SpaceX’s Starship rocket, which is currently in development. CEO Philip Johnston emphasized the growing importance of securing launch capacity as the market for rocket transportation becomes more constrained. 'We can see what’s coming — we’re going to need to book an enormous amount of launch,' Johnston told TechCrunch. Launch costs have become a major challenge for orbital data center startups, with some companies exploring the development of their own rockets to mitigate the issue.
SpaceX is set to phase out its Falcon 9 rocket, which has been a workhorse for satellite launches, and transition to the larger Starship rocket, which is still unproven. This transition, combined with delays in other launch vehicles, has made planning more difficult for satellite operators. Starcloud is currently focused on launching two of its new 8 kW compute satellites, Starcloud-2, on rideshare flights in 2027. These satellites will perform orbital inference tasks for U.S. government agencies. The company is also considering purchasing a dedicated Falcon 9 launch to increase its satellite deployment capacity and is exploring contracts with other providers to support future missions. Starcloud remains optimistic about the potential of SpaceX’s Starship to reduce launch costs and enable the creation of an orbital inference layer that could compete with terrestrial data centers.
Johnston expressed confidence in SpaceX’s ability to demonstrate the reusability of the Starship rocket, which could significantly lower launch costs. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently announced a delay in attempting to catch a returning Starship rocket and plans to re-fly the vehicle by late 2027. Starcloud’s funding extension was led by Manhattan West Ventures and included participation from Nvidia and Cisco. A person familiar with the deal noted that Nvidia contributed $25 million to support the startup. Other participants included Benchmark, EQT, Soma, NFX, 776, Cedar Capital, Goanna Capital, and Standard Capital. Johnston highlighted the Nvidia investment as a key signal of Starcloud’s advantages in the emerging space compute sector.
Starcloud is the only company known to be operating a Nvidia H100 GPU in orbit and has trained a model using it, while most other space GPUs are designed for edge processing. Starcloud is sharing its insights with Nvidia as the chipmaker develops its first space-ready GPU, the Vera Rubin Space-1. The space-ready chip is not yet built, but Starcloud aims to fly it into orbit by late 2028. The company is also tracking key design choices for the chip, including its operating temperature, radiation shielding, and ruggedization for rocket launches. Starcloud, which currently employs 25 people, is developing production lines at a 100,000-square-foot facility in Woodinville, Washington, near where SpaceX and Amazon build satellites for their communications networks.
Source: techcrunch
