Starcloud, a US based startup, aiming to build data centres in orbit has recently raised $170 million in a Series A funding round which values the company at $1.1 billion, marking a rapid rise to unicorn status shortly after emerging from the Y Combinator programme. The funding was led by Benchmark and EQT Ventures.

The company is seeking to develop data centres in space, positioning them as an alternative to terrestrial facilities that face increasing constraints related to energy, land use and regulation. The concept remains largely untested and is expected to require significant capital investment.

Starcloud has raised a total of $200 million to date and launched its first satellite in November 2025, equipped with an Nvidia H100 processor. A more advanced system, known as Starcloud 2, is expected later this year, incorporating multiple processors including chips from Nvidia’s Blackwell architecture, cloud hardware from Amazon Web Services (AWS), and a bitcoin mining computer, according to a recent report by Techcrunch.

The company is also developing a larger spacecraft, Starcloud 3, designed to function as a full-scale orbital data centre. The system is intended to launch aboard Starship, a next-generation reusable rocket being developed by SpaceX.