Starcloud secures $250 million boost to expand orbital AI data centers
Starcloud announced a $250 million extension to its Series A round, valuing the startup at $2.3 billion and funding larger manufacturing and its Starcloud-3 satellite.
Starcloud, a venture-backed startup building AI-capable satellites, added a $250 million extension to its March $170 million Series A financing, pushing its valuation to $2.3 billion. The new capital will fund a larger manufacturing plant in Woodinville, Washington, and support development of the Starcloud-3 orbital data-center, intended for SpaceX’s upcoming Starship vehicle. CEO Philip Johnston is actively securing launch slots, having filed with the FCC for authority to operate up to 88,000 spacecraft and planning rideshare launches of two 8 kW compute satellites in 2027 for U.S. government customers.
With SpaceX phasing out Falcon 9 and Starship still unproven, launch capacity is becoming scarce, prompting Starcloud to consider dedicated Falcon 9 flights and contracts with other providers. The round was led by Manhattan West Ventures and included participation from Nvidia, which contributed $25 million, Cisco, Benchmark, EQT and several other investors. Nvidia’s involvement underscores Starcloud’s unique use of an Nvidia H100 GPU in orbit and collaboration on the upcoming Vera Rubin Space-1 chip, which the company hopes to launch by late 2028.
Why it matters
The financing gives Starcloud resources to expand orbital AI computing, a sector that could reshape data processing and launch markets.
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