Starcloud

Starcloud (@Starcloud_Inc1) recently made history by launching a satellite with an NVIDIA H100 into orbit — the first time a GPU that powerful has ever operated in space. It's the first step toward building AI data centers in orbit, powered by continuous sunlight and cooled by radiating heat into deep space. Their approach could one day rival the world's biggest data centers while using less energy, zero fresh water, and far lower emissions. YC's @aaron_epstein visited Starcloud's HQ, where co-founders @philipjohnston, @EzraFeilden, and @Adi_Oltean explained how they built a working prototype in just 15 months — and why big tech is racing to space for AI compute.

If it’s really true that @AnthropicAI’s revenue went grew from $30bn last month to $40bn this month, then I don’t know why more people are freaking out about it. This is UN-BE-LIEV-A-BLE 😲🤯 You don’t have to extrapolate this out too far to get to Dyson Spheres! @Starcloud_

I’m also bullish for AI infrastructure! @Starcloud_

.@Starcloud_ is bringing AI compute to orbit—cutting energy costs and enabling real-time insights from space.

.@Starcloud_ is bringing AI compute to orbit—cutting energy costs and enabling real-time insights from space.

BREAKING: Starcloud has raised a $170M Series A at a $1.1B valuation to build data centres in space. CEO and founder @PhilipJohnston says: "The AI revolution is colliding with the physical limits of our terrestrial energy grid". "We are quickly running out of places to build new energy projects for data centers on Earth. By moving AI compute to space, we unlock access to unlimited solar power and completely remove the energy bottleneck". @Starcloud_'s Series A, which closed 17 months after its demo day presentation, was led by @benchmark and @eqt.

My first time at the @WhiteHouse! Great to discuss @Starcloud_ and the benefits of orbital data centers 🤓

Starcloud CEO @PhilipJohnston joins @itsmoislam and I at the NYSE. "In order to make data centers in space work, you really need the BOM costs for a 200 kW satellite to be on the order of 1 million dollars." We chat: - Building low cost sats - 20 yr terrestrial vs. 5 yr space - Merge with a launch company? - Does Starcloud exist if Earth's bottlenecks vanish? - Better leader: Altman or Dario - Building sats cheaper than Starlink - GPU failure rate

.@Starcloud_ CEO @PhilipJohnston expects SpaceX to have a "near monopoly on launch" for the next 5–10 years: "Starship is way ahead of any other program." "The manufacturing that they're ramping up is insane—like building three Starships per day potentially with their gigafactories." "The problem with Blue Origin's rocket is, they don't have a reusable upper stage. As I understand, they're not even really trying to build a reusable upper stage." "The way they talk about pricing is they say, 'We will be as good as the next best price from Falcon 9.'" "Which, for people who don't know, the next best price from Falcon 9 is like 5x the price of Falcon 9."

Full house for the orbital data center panel at the @NYSE! @Starcloud_

Just watched @PhilipJohnston on @etnshow drop the radiator masterclass. Congrats to @Starcloud_ engineering team @AdiOltean on the custom deployable radiator that’s 10× lighter & 100× cheaper per watt than the ISS radiator. It runs chips hot, uses low mass panels, and seems to have solved the thermal management problem for orbital AI inference. Curious about the design… is it integrated with a special thermal wing or a standalone deployable?

Thanks @itsmoislam and @JackKuhr for having me on to talk about @Starcloud_ at the @NYSE + @payloadspace Space Summit🤓 Few spicy questions in there!

Thanks @itsmoislam and @JackKuhr for having me on to talk about @Starcloud_ at the @NYSE Space Summit🤓 Few spicy questions in there!

Ineffable Intelligence, China Blocks Manus, OpenAI Loosen Microsoft, Palantir Joins x.com/i/broadcasts/1…

No @Starcloud_ didn’t go public… yet! But fun to be on the balcony for the ringing of the bell by former @NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine for the @NYSE Space summit! 🚀

TUNE IN @ 11AM ET / 8AM PT for our 2 hour space & defense show live from @NYSE. Guest times (ET): – 11:10AM @IanCinnamon, CEO of @ApexSpacecraft – 11:25AM @PhilipJohnston, CEO of @Starcloud_ – 11:40AM @_Eric_Romo, COO of @GoToImpulse – 11:55AM @KaranKunjur, CEO of @K2SpaceCo – 12:10PM @Farshchi, Partner at @Lux_Capital – 12:25PM @zebulgar, President of @VardaSpace / Partner at @foundersfund Will be livestreamed from the @payloadspace X page. In addition 👇