Starcloud raises $170 million Series Ato build data centers in space

Starcloud, a space compute startup, has raised $170 million in a Series A funding round led by Benchmark and EQT Ventures, valuing the company at $1.1 billion and marking it as one of the fastest unicorns from Y Combinator. The company has now raised a total of $200 million and launched its first satellite equipped with an Nvidia H100 GPU in November 2025. Starcloud plans to launch a more powerful satellite, Starcloud 2, later in 2026, featuring multiple GPUs including Nvidia’s Blackwell chip, an AWS server blade, and a bitcoin mining computer. Additionally, Starcloud is developing Starcloud 3, a 200-kilowatt, three-ton data center spacecraft designed to launch from SpaceX’s Starship rocket. CEO Philip Johnston expects Starcloud 3 to be the first orbital data center cost-competitive with terrestrial centers, assuming commercial Starship launches begin around 2028-2029. The company’s business model includes