Starcloud Inc. has raised $170 million in a funding round valuing the company at $1.1 billion. The capital was raised in two tranches, led by Benchmark and co-led by EQT.
The startup aims to build a 5-gigawatt AI data center in orbit using modular containers powered by solar energy. Its first satellite, Starcloud-1, launched in low-Earth orbit with an H100 GPU and ran Google’s Gemini models.
Starcloud-2, now under development, will feature the largest commercial deployable radiator ever launched and generate 100 times more power than its predecessor.
The company plans to launch Starcloud-2 later this year. It intends to use orbital solar power and radiative cooling to overcome terrestrial data center limitations.
CEO Philip Johnston says moving AI compute to space unlocks unlimited solar power and removes the energy bottleneck.
Starcloud plans to build a manufacturing facility and increase workforce size using the newly raised funds.