STARCLOUD RAISES $170M AT $1.1B VALUATION TO BUILD DATA CENTERS IN ORBIT

Washington-based Starcloud has raised $170 million in Series A funding, reaching a reported valuation of $1.1 billion as it accelerates plans to build GPU-powered data centers in low Earth orbit.

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The funding round positions the company as the fastest unicorn in Y Combinator’s history, according to its leadership, and underscores rising investor interest in space-based computing infrastructure. Starcloud’s ambition is to move portions of AI and high-performance workloads off Earth entirely, deploying multi-GPU spacecraft that function as orbital data centers powered by solar energy.

TAKING DATA CENTERS OFF PLANET

Permitting and constructing large-scale data centers on Earth can take years, particularly in regions where power, water usage, and land approvals face regulatory hurdles. Starcloud argues that orbital infrastructure bypasses many of these constraints.

In low Earth orbit, spacecraft can harness continuous solar energy without drawing from terrestrial grids. By avoiding land acquisition and zoning processes, the company believes it can shorten deployment timelines relative to traditional hyperscale facilities.

CEO Philip Johnston has described the model as a complementary approach rather than an immediate replacement for ground-based data centers. While terrestrial hyperscalers currently dominate global cloud capacity, Starcloud is betting that orbital compute can address power and cooling limitations that increasingly constrain AI expansion on Earth.

FROM H100 TO BLACKWELL IN ORBIT

Starcloud launched its first satellite, Starcloud-1, in November 2025. Weighing approximately 60 kilograms, the spacecraft carried a Nvidia H100 GPU into orbit — a milestone achieved just 21 months after the company's founding.