https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/starcloud Y Combinator About What Happens at YC?ApplyYC Interview GuideFAQPeopleYC Blog Companies Startup DirectoryFounder DirectoryLaunch YC Startup Jobs All Jobs* Engineering* Operations* Marketing* SalesStartup Job Guide YC Startup Jobs Blog Find a Co-Founder Library SAFE Resources Startup SchoolNewsletterRequests for StartupsFor InvestorsHacker News Bookface Open main menu Apply for S2025 batch.Apply Home>Companies>Starcloud [e9c9b9996b] Starcloud Data centers in space Summer 2024 Active hard-tech satellites climate cloud-computing ai --------------------------------------------------------------------- Company Jobs0 News https://www.starcloud.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Data centers in space (Formerly known as Lumen Orbit) Starcloud is building a network of megawatt-scale data centers in space, scaleable to gigawatt capacity, to be able to train large models like GPT6. Falling launch costs give us access to abundant energy, passive cooling, and the ability to rapidly scale in space. In Partnership with NVIDIA's Inception Program, we are launching our demonstrator satellite in July 2025, which will have 100x more powerful GPUs than have ever been operated in space. Active Founders Philip Johnston Philip Johnston Founder/CEO Twitter account Ezra Feilden Ezra Feilden Founder Adi Oltean Adi Oltean Founder Latest News Could data centres ever be built in orbit? Starcloud thinks so Apr 16, 2025 Newly renamed Starcloud raises $10M for space data centers Feb 26, 2025 The answer to tech's clean energy problem? Put data centres in space Feb 11, 2025 200 VCs wanted to get into Lumen Orbit's $11M seed round | TechCrunch Dec 11, 2024 Lumen Orbit Raises $2.4M to Speed Up Downlink - Payload Mar 11, 2024 Starcloud Starcloud Founded:2024 Batch:Summer 2024 Team Size:4 Status: Active Location:Redmond, WA Primary Partner:Tom Blomfield X (Twitter) logo Company Launches Starcloud Data Centers in Space See original launch post [7e0ffedf-f] TL;DR - We should train future large AI models in space to make use of abundant solar energy, cooling, and the ability to freely scale up. Hey all, we're building data centers in space. We're launching our first satellite next year, which will have the most powerful GPUs ever put in space by >100x. We will launch a larger iteration each year until we reach gigawatt scale. The Problem Future hyperscale data centers will put a huge strain on electricity grids, freshwater distribution, and the Western world's permitting systems. It will simply not be possible to deploy multi-gigawatt scale data centers rapidly in the way we build data centers today. Our Solution We take advantage of falling launch costs to make use of inexpensive solar energy in space and low-cost passive radiative cooling, rapidly scaling up orbital data centers almost indefinitely without the physical or permitting constraints faced on Earth. This will ensure we can continue training ever larger models without destroying the environment. [?][?] Read our white paper Check out our white paper for more information on why space data centers are the future and how we're going about making this happen. See a short video on the design here. What we've achieved so far * Booked our first launch (May 2025) and our second launch (H2 2026) * Set up our payload manufacturing facility in Redmond, WA * Designed and started building and testing our first spacecraft, with the fastest GPUs to ever launch to space by ~100x * Created concept designs for our micro data center (2026 launch) and our Hypercluster data center (launching when Starship-class launch vehicles enter commercial service) * Secured high-value LOIs for H100 compute time in space What's next * Launch and complete our demonstrator mission, which will train the first LLM in space! * Prototype our micro-data center design * Secure contracts which incumbent hyper scalers Our Team [22431fb2-7] Philip, CEO, is a second-time founder who has worked at McKinsey & Co. working on satellite projects for national space agencies. Philip has an MPA in National Security & Technology from Harvard University, an MBA from Wharton, an MA in Applied Mathematics & Theoretical Physics from Columbia University, and is a CFA Charter holder. Ezra, CTO, has a decade of experience with satellite design, specializing in deployable solar arrays and large deployable structures. Ezra comes from Airbus Defense & Space (SSTL) and Oxford Space Systems, where he worked on missions including NASA's Lunar Pathfinder. Ezra has a PhD in Materials Engineering from Imperial College London. Adi, Chief Engineer, was previously a Principal Software Engineer at SpaceX, where he was part of the Starlink network team enabling Starlink for in-motion users, including Starship. Before that, he deployed the first LLMs on large GPU production clusters at Microsoft, where he also delivered more than 25 patents in more than two decades. Adi holds degrees in Computer Science and Chemistry from the top two universities in Bucharest. Asks Join our team! If you are or know any hardcore engineers with experience in aerospace or data center infrastructure and are interested in working with the Starcloud team, please get in touch! https://www.starcloud.com/careers We are also interested in talking to operators and customers of hyperscale training clusters who are contemplating the scale-up from megawatts to gigawatts. Company Photo Company photo YC Summer 2024 Application Video Footer Y CombinatorY Combinator Programs * YC Program * Startup School * Work at a Startup * Co-Founder Matching Company * YC Blog * Contact * Press * People * Careers * Privacy Policy * Notice at Collection * Security * Terms of Use Resources * Startup Directory * Startup Library * Investors * SAFE * Hacker News * Launch YC * YC Deals Make something people want. Apply TwitterFacebookInstagramLinkedInYoutube (c) 2025 Y Combinator