Starcloud Raises $250m Series A Extension At $2.3bn Valuation For Orbital AI Data Centers

Orbital data center company Starcloud has raised $250 million in a Series A extension at a $2.3 billion valuation, following its $170 million Series A in March. The round was led by Manhattan West and included existing investors such as Benchmark and EQT, alongside new investors including Nvidia and Cisco Investments. Starcloud aims to operate 88,000 orbital computing satellites with 20GW of capacity. The latest funding brings its total raised since 2024 to $450 million.

"Last November we put the first NVIDIA H100in orbit,” said Starcloud co-founder and CEO, Philip Johnston, in a statement. “Today, this fresh capital empowers us to build the infrastructure to launch many more of Nvidia's most advanced GPUs into space.”

Starcloud is developing its Starcloud-3 spacecraft at a new 100,000-square-foot factory in Washington. The company has tested AI models in orbit and plans to deploy Nvidia’s Vera Rubin module in 2028. Other companies, including Cowboy Space, Axiom Space, and Kepler Communications, are also developing Nvidia-powered orbital data centers.

“Cisco has long been a leader in secure data center infrastructure and looks forward to bringing that expertise to the emerging world of orbital data centers,” said Aleem Rizvon, vice president, Cisco Investments, in the same statement. “Cisco Investments is excited to invest in Starcloud as [it] expands data centers into space.”