Starcloud raises additional funding and plans two Starcloud-2 satellites for 2027

Starcloud/Starcloud satellites

Starcloud, which is building data centres in orbit, raised a $250 million extension of its Series A at a $2.3 billion valuation, led by Manhattan West Ventures with $25 million from Nvidia. It plans to launch two Starcloud-2 satellites with 8 kW of computing each on rideshare flights in 2027, running AI inference for US government agencies. CEO Philip Johnston said securing launches is now one of its biggest costs.

• Starcloud-1, already in orbit, carries an Nvidia H100 GPU and was used to train a model in space.
• Launch supply is tight: SpaceX plans to end Falcon 9 in 2028, New Glenn and Vulcan don't yet fly regularly, and Rocket Lab's Neutron isn't operational.
• Starcloud has 25 employees, raised $170 million in March, and is seeking FCC permission for up to 88,000 spacecraft.
• With Nvidia it is developing a space-ready Vera Rubin chip for deployment in late 2028.