US Startup Starcloud Raises $250M for Space AI Data Centers

US startup Starcloud has raised $250 million in a Series A extension, valuing it at $2.3 billion. The funds will be used to develop satellites with high-performance GPUs for AI computing. The round was led by Manhattan West, with Nvidia and Cisco as new investors.

Last November, Starcloud sent a satellite with Nvidia H100 chips into space, where it trained AI models and ran Google's Gemini. The company is working with Nvidia on a space-specific module, Space-1 Vera Rubin, to handle cooling and radiation challenges.

Starcloud plans a cluster of 88,000 satellites offering 20GW of orbital computing power, aiming to move data centers from Earth to space as a new solution for the post-AI era.