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Data centers in space
Starcloud is building data centers in space, initially to provide GPU compute to other satellites, and later to address the rapidly growing demand for energy caused by the deployment of AI. Falling launch costs give Starcloud access to abundant energy, radiative cooling, and the ability to rapidly scale in space. In November 2025, just 21 months after founding, Starcloud launched its first satellite, Starcloud-1 to space. This has an Nvidia H100, which is 100x more powerful GPU than has ever been operated in space before. With this, they became the first entity to train an LLM in space and the first to run a version of Gemini in space. Starcloud will soon also run high-powered inference on Capella SAR data on orbit for the first time. Starcloud is launching its second satellite in October 2026, which will have 100x the power generation of the first and generate more cash than it costs to build and launch. Starcloud expects that within 10 years, most new data centers will be being built in space for the energy. In March 2026, Starcloud raised a $170M Series A led by Benchmark, becoming the fastest unicorn in YC history, just 17 months after demo day.
Starcloud envisions deploying data centers in space to harness continuous solar energy and radiative cooling, aiming to scale compute for AI workloads beyond Earth-bound constraints. The company positions space-based hyperscale infrastructure as a future deployment, emphasizing rapid deployment and reduced permitting needs.
Starcloud promotes space-based data centers that would operate in space to provide gigawatt-scale compute for AI. The concept highlights abundant solar energy and radiative cooling in space, enabling large training clusters without terrestrial permitting constraints. Their materials describe a roadmap with multiple starcloud platforms and a whitepaper explaining architectures for deploying gigawatt-scale compute in space.
Who it’s for: AI/ML enterprises and data center operators seeking hyperscale infrastructure and future-ready compute capacity, including potential suppliers and customers interested in space-enabled data center capabilities.
team with multiple co-founders described; whitepaper available; seeking suppliers or customers for collaboration; early-stage/roadmap emphasis
Philip is a second-time founder who previously spent time at McKinsey & Co. working on satellite projects for national space agencies. Philip has an MPA in National Security & Technology from Harvard University, an MBA from Wharton, an MA in Applied Mathematics & Theoretical Physics from Columbia University, and is a CFA Charter holder.
Ezra has a decade of experience with satellite design, specializing in deployable solar arrays and large deployable structures. Ezra comes from Airbus Defense & Space (SSTL) and Oxford Space Systems, where he worked on many missions, including NASA's Lunar Pathfinder. Ezra has a PhD in Materials Engineering from Imperial College London.
I have a software and hardware background. As part of SpaceX and Microsoft I delivered key features in satellite networks, operating systems, cloud and machine learning infra. My focus areas at Starcloud include software, hardware and engineering design aspects of our satellite constellation.
Starcloud is building data centers in space to make use of 24/7 solar energy and passive cooling.
Starcloud builds orbital data centers and plans to launch satellites delivering GPU compute in space, aiming to scale from initial demonstrations to gigawatt-scale facilities. The product targets hyperscale AI training workloads, using solar energy and passive cooling in space to enable scalable, environmentally minded data center capacity.
Formerly “Lumen Orbit, Inc” · why startups rename →
AI operating system for mega-scale satellite networks.
Constellations as a Service
