Starcloud, an orbital AI inference startup, raised a $250 million extension to its March Series A, bringing total funding to $420 million and valuing the company at $2.3 billion. The capital will expand manufacturing for its largest orbital data center spacecraft, Starcloud-3, designed to launch on SpaceX’s Starship rocket. CEO Philip Johnston emphasized the urgency of securing launch contracts as SpaceX phases out Falcon 9 by 2028 and Starship remains unproven.
The company has requested FCC approval for 88,000 spacecraft and plans to launch two Starcloud-2 satellites in 2027 via rideshare flights, targeting U.S. government customers. Starcloud is also exploring dedicated Falcon 9 launches and alternative providers to mitigate launch constraints. Johnston highlighted SpaceX’s Starship as critical to reducing costs for orbital inference, which could compete with terrestrial data centers.
Nvidia led the funding round’s extension with a $25 million investment, citing Starcloud’s use of Nvidia H100 GPUs in orbit—the first such deployment—and shared learnings for its upcoming Vera Rubin Space-1 GPU. Starcloud is also developing production lines in Washington state and aims to fly the space-ready GPU in late 2028, focusing on thermal management and radiation shielding.
