The financing builds on Starcloud’s work with NVIDIA, which began with the Starcloud-1 satellite. In November 2025, Starcloud sent an NVIDIA H100 GPU into orbit aboard the spacecraft. The companies announced in March 2026 that they were collaborating on NVIDIA’s Space-1 Vera Rubin Module. “Last November we put the first NVIDIA H100 in orbit. Today this fresh capital empowers us to build the infrastructure to launch many more of NVIDIA's most advanced GPUs into space,” Starcloud co-founder and CEO Philip Johnston said.
The Space-1 Vera Rubin Module is being designed around the demands of operating computing hardware in orbit. Equipment must contend with radiation, while thermal management relies primarily on large radiators. Starcloud expects its satellites to provide an early testing environment for hardware designed for those conditions, extending the work conducted with Starcloud-1.
Starcloud has used that first satellite for several computing demonstrations. The company says it trained an AI model in space, operated a version of Google’s Gemini in orbit and carried out both inference and fine-tuning using flight hardware. The mission has also allowed Starcloud to develop procedures for operating high-performance GPUs in orbit. The company is now building toward a much larger orbital computing system. Its long-term plan calls for 88,000 satellites providing 20 gigawatts of computing capacity.
Starcloud is also expanding the manufacturing operation needed for its next generation of spacecraft. Production-line development for Starcloud-3 is underway at a new 100,000-square-foot facility in Woodinville, Washington. Part of the latest financing will support that manufacturing expansion.
Cisco Investments joined Starcloud’s investor group in the new round, bringing another company with data center, networking, optical and AI infrastructure experience into the project. “Cisco has long been a leader in secure data center infrastructure and looks forward to bringing that expertise to the emerging world of orbital data centers,” said Aleem Rizvon, vice president of Cisco Investments. “Cisco Investments is excited to invest in Starcloud as they expand data centers into space.”
Ken Abdalla and Lauren Selig led the investment for Manhattan West, with Selig becoming a board observer.
Along with manufacturing and its NVIDIA collaboration, Starcloud plans to use the new capital to purchase future launch allocation. The investment gives the company more resources to move beyond the Starcloud-1 demonstrations and develop the spacecraft, hardware and production capacity required for its planned orbital computing infrastructure.
This analysis is based on reporting from Yahoo Finance courtesy of Business Wire.
Image courtesy of Starcloud.
This article was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy and quality.
