Starcloud Secures $170M for Orbital AI Data Centers

Starcloud, an orbital compute infrastructure startup, has successfully raised $170 million, achieving a valuation of $1.1 billion. This significant funding round, led by Benchmark and EQT Ventures, highlights growing investor interest in space-based technology.

The capital infusion will be instrumental in advancing Starcloud's plans for next-generation satellites, expanding its manufacturing capacity, and securing future launch contracts. The company is progressing towards commercial operations, with existing customer contracts primarily for other spacecraft.

Starcloud is also in discussions for binding energy offtake agreements with hyperscalers, expected to be announced soon. In a notable achievement, the company conducted an industry-first demonstration of AI training and inference in orbit in November by launching a satellite equipped with an Nvidia H100 chip.

A second launch is planned for October, featuring Amazon Web Services' AWS Outposts offering. Starcloud anticipates that falling launch costs by 2028 or 2029 will render space-based data centers economically viable compared to terrestrial alternatives.

This latest funding brings Starcloud's total capital raised to $200 million. The Redmond, Washington-based company had previously secured $34 million from investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and In-Q-Tel.