The race to move AI infrastructure beyond Earth is starting to attract serious capital.
Starcloud has raised a $250 million extension to its Series A round, bringing new funding to its effort to build orbital data centers capable of running AI workloads in space.
The extension follows the company’s $170 million Series A announced in March and values Starcloud at $2.3 billion.
Building AI Infrastructure in Orbit
Starcloud is developing satellites designed to perform AI inference in orbit, with the long-term goal of creating a computing layer that can complement terrestrial data centers.
The company plans to use the new capital to expand manufacturing and continue development of Starcloud-3, its largest orbital data center spacecraft to date.
Starcloud-3 is being designed around the future capabilities of SpaceX’s Starship rocket, which could eventually provide the launch capacity needed to deploy much larger computing systems into orbit.
For Starcloud, however, the technology challenge is only one part of the equation. Access to launch capacity is becoming just as important as the spacecraft themselves.
Launch Capacity Becomes a Strategic Priority
CEO Philip Johnston said the company expects to require significant launch capacity as it scales.
Starcloud has already requested permission from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to operate as many as 88,000 spacecraft, highlighting the scale of its long-term ambitions.
The challenge is that the launch market is becoming increasingly constrained.
SpaceX is expected to phase out its Falcon 9 program in the coming years as Starship becomes more central to its launch strategy. At the same time, alternatives such as Blue Origin’s New Glenn and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan are not yet flying at the frequency required for large-scale orbital infrastructure.
That uncertainty is pushing Starcloud to secure launch contracts earlier and consider multiple providers.
Starcloud-2 Missions Planned for 2027
Before Starcloud-3, the company plans to launch two Starcloud-2 satellites in 2027.
Each spacecraft is designed to provide around 8 kW of computing power and will be used to perform AI inference tasks in orbit.
The company says customers will include U.S. government agencies, giving Starcloud an opportunity to demonstrate real-world use cases before attempting much larger deployments.
Starcloud is also considering a dedicated Falcon 9 launch for additional spacecraft while exploring contracts with other launch providers.
Nvidia and Cisco Join the Funding Round
The funding extension was led by Manhattan West Ventures, with participation from Nvidia, Cisco, Benchmark, EQT, Soma, NFX, 776, Cedar Capital, Goanna Capital, and Standard Capital.
Nvidia reportedly invested $25 million, making its participation particularly significant for Starcloud.
The relationship goes beyond capital.
Starcloud currently operates an Nvidia H100 GPU in orbit and says it has already used the system to train an AI model. That gives the company access to real operating data from running advanced AI hardware in space.
Helping Nvidia Develop Space-Ready AI Hardware
Starcloud is sharing the data collected from its orbital systems with Nvidia as the chipmaker works on its first purpose-built GPU for space.
The planned chip, known as Vera Rubin Space-1, is being designed specifically for the challenges of orbital computing.
Those challenges include managing heat in vacuum, protecting components from radiation, and ensuring hardware can survive the extreme forces of rocket launches.
Starcloud hopes to deploy the new Nvidia chip in orbit sometime in late 2028.
If successful, the collaboration could give both companies an early advantage in a new category of AI infrastructure.
The Economics of Orbital Computing
The broader idea behind orbital data centers is based on the possibility that space could eventually provide advantages for large-scale AI computing.
But the economics remain difficult.
Launching heavy computing infrastructure is expensive, and orbital systems require specialized thermal management, radiation protection, power systems, and communications infrastructure.
Starcloud is betting that reusable heavy-lift rockets such as Starship can eventually reduce launch costs enough to make orbital computing commercially viable.
That assumption makes SpaceX an important part of the company’s long-term strategy.
If Starship reaches high launch frequency and rapid reusability, Starcloud believes it could deploy computing infrastructure at a scale that begins to compete with traditional data centers.
Scaling Manufacturing
Starcloud is also investing heavily in manufacturing.
The company is developing production lines at a 100,000-square-foot facility in Woodinville, Washington, close to major satellite operations run by companies including SpaceX and Amazon.
Starcloud currently has around 25 employees, but the company is expanding as it moves from experimentation toward larger-scale spacecraft production.
The new funding gives Starcloud more flexibility to invest in manufacturing while also securing launch capacity well ahead of future missions.
A New Frontier for AI Infrastructure
Starcloud’s latest funding reflects how quickly the AI infrastructure market is expanding beyond traditional data centers.
Companies are now exploring everything from specialized chips and new cooling technologies to nuclear power and, increasingly, computing in orbit.
For Starcloud, the opportunity depends on bringing several technologies together at once: advanced AI hardware, satellite manufacturing, reliable launch services, and scalable power and thermal systems.
The company still faces significant technical and economic challenges, but the support of Nvidia, Cisco, and other investors gives it substantial backing as it attempts to build a new layer of computing infrastructure beyond Earth.
With $250 million in additional funding and larger spacecraft already in development, Starcloud is positioning itself as one of the most ambitious players in the emerging orbital AI market.