Starcloud raises $250 million for orbital data centers

Space-based computing startup **Starcloud** is accelerating its plans to move artificial intelligence infrastructure into orbit after raising an additional **$250 million** in funding. The new investment extends the company’s $170 million Series A round announced in March and pushes Starcloud’s valuation to approximately **$2.3 billion**. The fresh capital will be used to expand the company’s manufacturing capabilities and advance its largest orbital data center spacecraft, **Starcloud-3**, which is planned to launch aboard SpaceX’s future Starship rocket.

Starcloud is developing satellites capable of running AI inference and other computing workloads directly in space, a concept that could eventually reduce the need to process enormous amounts of data on Earth. CEO Philip Johnston said the company is already preparing for a potential shortage of rocket launch capacity and wants to secure future launches as early as possible.

The concern is partly linked to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 program, which is currently expected to wind down toward the end of the decade, potentially making launch availability increasingly competitive. The latest funding round was led by **Manhattan West Ventures**, with participation from Nvidia and Cisco, alongside existing investors including Benchmark and EQT Ventures. Nvidia’s involvement is particularly significant because Starcloud has already operated an **Nvidia H100 GPU in orbit**, making it one of the few companies to demonstrate the use of a high-performance terrestrial data center GPU in space.

Starcloud says it has also used the orbital GPU to train an AI model, generating technical data that Nvidia can use as it develops hardware specifically designed for space environments. Nvidia is working on the **Vera Rubin Space-1** chip, which is expected to address challenges such as temperature control, radiation protection and the physical stress of rocket launches. Starcloud hopes to put the new space-focused chip into orbit by late 2028.

The company is also expanding its manufacturing operation at a **100,000-square-foot facility in Woodinville, Washington**, where it is developing production lines for future spacecraft. With only around 25 employees today, Starcloud is attempting to build the foundation for what could become a new category of orbital infrastructure. As demand for AI computing continues to grow, the startup is betting that some of the world's future data centers may not be on Earth at all—but hundreds of kilometers above it.