Starcloud raises $250 million for orbital data centers as launch options dry up

Starcloud, a startup developing satellites that can perform AI inference in orbit, told TechCrunch that it has added a $250 million extension to its March $170 million Series A funding round. The extension values the company at $2.3 billion.

The additional capital will allow the company to open a larger manufacturing facility and advance its largest orbital data center spacecraft, Starcloud-3, which is intended to fly on SpaceX's forthcoming Starship rocket. CEO Philip Johnston is also amassing capital to ensure that he can launch his satellites as the market for rocket transportation tightens up.

"We can see what's coming—we're going to need to book an enormous amount of launch," Johnston told TechCrunch. Starcloud has already requested permission from the FCC to operate 88,000 spacecraft.

"As soon as we can, we want to get under contract with things like Starship," Johnston said. "One of the biggest costs is now on securing your launch capacity….launch is pretty constrained right now because [SpaceX's] Falcon 9 program is scheduled to end in 2028."

Launch costs were already one of the biggest challenges for orbital data center startups, to the point that one startup has decided to build its own rockets.

SpaceX is now planning to phase out its workhorse vehicle and bring the much larger, but still unproven, Starship rocket online, making planning more difficult for satellite operators. That's especially true while competing rockets, like Blue Origin's New Glenn and ULA's Vulcan, are not flying regularly, and new vehicles like Rocket Lab's Neutron are not yet on the pad.

For now, Starcloud is focused on launching two of the company's new generation of 8 kw compute satellites (dubbed Starcloud-2) on rideshare flights in 2027. These will perform orbital inference tasks for customers including US government agencies. Starcloud is considering buying a dedicated Falcon 9 launch to launch more spacecraft and signing contracts with other providers, as well, to support future missions.

Still, Starcloud is ultimately built around the potential of SpaceX's Starship to drive down launch costs enough to build out an orbital inference layer that can compete with terrestrial data centers. Johnston says he remains confident in SpaceX's ability to demonstrate that the world's most powerful rocket can be reused quickly and often.