BREAKING: Inside Starcloud, the $2.3B Startup Putting Data Centers in Space FACTORY TOUR - Redmond, WA Primes quoted them $75M-$100M to build their first data center in space. They did it for $2.5M. In just 21 months, Starcloud is one of the fastest companies to go from founding to orbit. With $450M in total funding from Manhattan West, Nvidia, Cisco, Benchmark & EQT, the team walks me through their mission for AI in space. I toured the new HQ w/ CEO @PhilipJohnston + co-founders @EzraFeilden & @AdiOltean AI compute on Earth is limited by power & permitting. @Starcloud_ is moving it to orbit, where solar power is nearly constant. Philip says the dawn-dusk orbit alone could fit about 10 TW of compute, roughly 20x the entire US power grid. Once launch costs fall below $500/kg, he says compute in space will be cheaper than on the ground. From Starcloud 1, Starcloud 2, to Starcloud 3, we saw: Tracking Starcloud 1 live in orbit, circling Earth every 90 minutes at 17,000 mph with the first Nvidia H100 in space. Co-Founder & Chief Engineer Adi Oltean walks through Starcloud 2 as the team fires the latches that deploy its 120 ft solar wingspan. It launches in January with 100x the power of Starcloud 1. Co-Founder & CTO Ezra Feilden shows the 16-ton secondhand vibe table. The team bought it for $200K, instead of paying $1.5M & waiting 2 years for a new one, they rebuilt it over a weekend. Engineering Manager Bailey Montaño leak checks the ion thruster after vibe. Bailey designed the radiators, which have 10x less mass & cost 500x less per watt than the ISS’s. In the fab shop, Ezra shows the Starcloud 3 demonstrator, a 2-ton, 235 kW vehicle that fits 50 to a Starship. Camilo Lopez cuts stainless on the laser cutter. Engineering Operations Lead Miguel Rivera, formerly of Helion Energy, teaches me to MIG weld. The tour ends in the new campus, about 100,000 sqft built to produce 100 satellites a week toward an 88,000-satellite constellation. 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 (00:00) Philip Johnston, Co-Founder & CEO of Starcloud (00:53) Tracking Starcloud 1 live in orbit (02:46) Fixing a 16-ton vibration machine in one weekend (06:59) From founding to orbit in 21 months (08:17) From SpaceX to Microsoft to Starcloud (09:49) Inside Starcloud 2 (13:12) A $15M mission to the nearest star (17:49) What goes on a spacecraft to Alpha Centauri (19:10) Why SpaceX could be worth $100 trillion (20:41) “This isn’t a hot take, this is just a fact (24:22) How big is Starcloud 3? (26:41) How do you book a ride to space? (30:11) How Starcloud tests in zero gravity (33:49) Can GPUs survive space radiation? (35:46) The first AI model trained in space (38:40) Will solar satellites block the sun? (40:57) How Starcloud tests a satellite for launch (46:45) The paperwork behind a launch (53:07) Molly puts her welding skills to the test (1:00:18) The engineer behind Starcloud's radiators (1:03:07) Inside Starcloud’s new campus (1:05:55) Why launch slots are the new scarce resource (1:06:45) Can someone shoot down a data center in space?