Starcloud’s $250M Extension Puts Orbital Data Centers in the Launch-Capacity Spotlight

Starcloud told TechCrunch it added a $250 million extension to its March $170 million Series A round. The extension values the company at $2.3 billion and supports its plan to develop satellites that can perform AI inference in orbit.

The new capital is earmarked for a larger manufacturing facility and work on Starcloud-3, the company’s largest orbital data center spacecraft. Starcloud-3 is intended to fly on SpaceX’s forthcoming Starship rocket.

Starcloud’s raise comes as the market for rocket transportation tightens, making launch capacity a strategic priority for satellite operators. CEO Philip Johnston told TechCrunch the company needs to book a large amount of launch capacity and wants to secure contracts with vehicles such as Starship.

The company has requested FCC permission to operate 88,000 spacecraft. TechCrunch notes that SpaceX is planning to phase out Falcon 9 while bringing the much larger but still unproven Starship online, complicating planning while other vehicles are not yet flying regularly.

For now, Starcloud is focused on launching two 8 kW compute satellites, called Starcloud-2, on rideshare flights in 2027. These satellites are expected to perform orbital inference tasks for customers including U.S. government agencies.

The company is also considering a dedicated Falcon 9 launch for more spacecraft and contracts with other launch providers. The takeaway for operators and investors: access to rockets may shape the pace of orbital compute as much as the compute hardware itself.

The funding extension was led by Manhattan West Ventures and included participation from Nvidia and Cisco, along with Benchmark, EQT, Soma, NFX, 776, Cedar Capital, Goanna Capital and Standard Capital. TechCrunch reported that a person familiar with the deal said Nvidia invested $25 million.

Starcloud says it is operating an Nvidia H100 terrestrial data center GPU in orbit and has used it to train a model. The company is sharing learnings with Nvidia as the chipmaker develops its Vera Rubin Space-1 chip, which Starcloud hopes to fly in late 2028.

Key milestones include Starcloud’s manufacturing expansion, its planned 2027 Starcloud-2 rideshare launches and progress toward flying Starcloud-3 on Starship. The company is developing production lines at a 100,000-square-foot facility in Woodinville, Washington, and has 25 employees.

Readers should watch whether launch capacity becomes more available, whether Starship reaches the cadence orbital data center startups need, and how quickly space-ready AI chips move from development to orbit. Those factors will help determine whether orbital inference can compete with terrestrial data centers.