Starcloud has secured $170 million in fresh funding, reaching a $1.1 billion valuation as demand for next-generation AI infrastructure intensifies.
The round, led by Benchmark and EQT Ventures, highlights growing investor interest in orbital computing as terrestrial data centers face mounting energy and capacity constraints.
Rising AI workloads are straining global infrastructure, pushing companies to explore space-based systems that can harness near-continuous solar power.
Major players are advancing similar ambitions, with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin exploring large-scale orbital data center networks.
Starcloud has already partnered with Nvidia, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud to develop off-planet AI capabilities.
In November, the company launched a satellite equipped with Nvidia’s H100 chip, marking a breakthrough in in-orbit AI training and inference.
A second mission is planned for October, featuring Amazon’s AWS Outposts, as Starcloud expands its commercial deployment strategy.
Despite high launch costs, the company expects pricing to decline by 2028, potentially making space-based data centers competitive with Earth-based infrastructure.
