Starcloud raises $250M for orbital AI data centers

Starcloud, a startup building orbital data centers, has raised $250 million in a funding extension, valuing the company at $2.3 billion as it races to secure launch capacity for its ambitious plan to put artificial intelligence infrastructure in space. The funding, announced on August 21, 2026, brings the company's total capital raised since its 2024 founding to $450 million.

The Series A extension was led by Manhattan West Ventures, with significant participation from Nvidia, which contributed $25 million, and Cisco Investments. Existing backers Benchmark, EQT Ventures, and Soma also joined the round, along with new investors Cedar Capital, Goanna Capital, and Standard Capital. The raise follows an initial $170 million Series A announced in March 2026, which valued the company at $1.1 billion.

Starcloud's core business is developing satellites equipped with high-performance GPUs to perform AI inference and training in orbit. The company's first satellite, Starcloud1, launched in November 2025 carrying an Nvidia H100 graphics card. According to the company, this mission demonstrated the first-ever orbital AI training run and provided critical flight data that convinced Nvidia to...