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Starcloud (starcloud_inc1) recently made history by launching a satellite with an NVIDIA H100 into orbit — the first time a GPU that powerful has ever operated in space. It's the first step toward building AI data centers in orbit, powered by continuous sunlight and cooled by radiating heat into...

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Philip Johnston (Philip Johnston) is the co-founder and CEO of Starcloud, the company building data centers in space. In November 2025, Starcloud launched an Nvidia H100 GPU into orbit and trained the first large language model in space. They've since raised $200 million, hit a billion-dollar valuation just 17 months after YC demo day and filed with the FCC to deploy 88,000 more satellites. In this episode of Lightcone Podcast, Philip walks us through their wild origin story, the engineering challenges behind the Starcloud-1, why they booked a SpaceX launch before they even knew what they were building and how data centers in space make sense both economically and politically. 00:39 — Why Build Data Centers in Space? 01:40 — The Insight That Started Starcloud 04:43 — Launching Starcloud-1 09:45 — The Engineering Behind Data Centers in Orbit 13:49 — Why 100 VCs Said No 16:12 — Book the Launch Before You Build the Product 18:32 — The Roadmap to Commercial Space Compute 21:10 — Building NVIDIA GPUs for Space 23:41 — Raising $170M for a Hard Tech Startup 26:37 — Hiring the World's Best Space Engineers 31:25 — Why AI Compute Is Moving to Space 34:49 — Advice for Hard Tech Founders
36:13

Philip Johnston (Philip Johnston) is the co-founder and CEO of Starcloud, the company building data centers in space. In November 2025, Starcloud launched an Nvidia H100 GPU into orbit and trained the first large language model in space. They've since raised $200 million, hit a billion-dollar valuation just 17 months after YC demo day and filed with the FCC to deploy 88,000 more satellites. In this episode of Lightcone Podcast, Philip walks us through their wild origin story, the engineering challenges behind the Starcloud-1, why they booked a SpaceX launch before they even knew what they were building and how data centers in space make sense both economically and politically. 00:39 — Why Build Data Centers in Space? 01:40 — The Insight That Started Starcloud 04:43 — Launching Starcloud-1 09:45 — The Engineering Behind Data Centers in Orbit 13:49 — Why 100 VCs Said No 16:12 — Book the Launch Before You Build the Product 18:32 — The Roadmap to Commercial Space Compute 21:10 — Building NVIDIA GPUs for Space 23:41 — Raising $170M for a Hard Tech Startup 26:37 — Hiring the World's Best Space Engineers 31:25 — Why AI Compute Is Moving to Space 34:49 — Advice for Hard Tech Founders

Y Combinator

229,182 views • 1 month ago

Think bigger than data centers. Much bigger. Elon Musk just unveiled SpaceXAI's first AI satellite, a spacecraft designed specifically for running AI workloads in orbit. The satellite features 150 kW of solar power, a 70-meter wingspan and massive radiators to dump heat into space, solving one of the biggest challenges in scaling AI. But this is just the beginning. Musk says truly large-scale orbital AI could eventually require hundreds of gigawatts to a terawatt of power, meaning millions of tons of infrastructure in orbit. The long-term vision isn't AI running in data centers. It's AI running in space at a scale that's impossible on Earth. Elon Musk
2:38

Think bigger than data centers. Much bigger. Elon Musk just unveiled SpaceXAI's first AI satellite, a spacecraft designed specifically for running AI workloads in orbit. The satellite features 150 kW of solar power, a 70-meter wingspan and massive radiators to dump heat into space, solving one of the biggest challenges in scaling AI. But this is just the beginning. Musk says truly large-scale orbital AI could eventually require hundreds of gigawatts to a terawatt of power, meaning millions of tons of infrastructure in orbit. The long-term vision isn't AI running in data centers. It's AI running in space at a scale that's impossible on Earth. Elon Musk

Tesla Owners Silicon Valley

19,203 views • 3 months ago

🆕📺EXCLUSIVE tour of @Starcloud_Inc1 ! Starcloud is making history by launching an @NVIDIA on a SpaceX rocket for the first AI datacenter in space!! 🚀 "We're maybe the last and largest business ever, because we're heading towards building a Dyson Sphere"- 🤯
23:56

🆕📺EXCLUSIVE tour of @Starcloud_Inc1 ! Starcloud is making history by launching an @NVIDIA on a SpaceX rocket for the first AI datacenter in space!! 🚀 "We're maybe the last and largest business ever, because we're heading towards building a Dyson Sphere"- 🤯

Gali

82,023 views • 11 months ago

It’s actually happening: Video footage of construction for SpaceX’s project to put AI Data Centers in orbit These Data Centers in space won’t take up earths resources like electricity and water because they will use solar power and be cooled by space “The SpaceX campus in Bastrop County is pushing for an ambitious project that would build what it's calling the AI1 satellite, a data center in space. There are visible signs construction is underway after the tech company announced this large expansion project where the Starlink facility currently sits it's being called the GigaSat factory — The company plans to launch these satellites into Earth's orbit with SpaceX Starships. The company says this tech will be powered by solar energy, and the cold temperatures in space will keep it from overheating” The goal is large scale meaningful production by the end of 2027, supporting an annualized rate of ~1 GW of orbital AI compute. This means thousands of satellites per year, with even more to scale much higher afterward
1:51

It’s actually happening: Video footage of construction for SpaceX’s project to put AI Data Centers in orbit These Data Centers in space won’t take up earths resources like electricity and water because they will use solar power and be cooled by space “The SpaceX campus in Bastrop County is pushing for an ambitious project that would build what it's calling the AI1 satellite, a data center in space. There are visible signs construction is underway after the tech company announced this large expansion project where the Starlink facility currently sits it's being called the GigaSat factory — The company plans to launch these satellites into Earth's orbit with SpaceX Starships. The company says this tech will be powered by solar energy, and the cold temperatures in space will keep it from overheating” The goal is large scale meaningful production by the end of 2027, supporting an annualized rate of ~1 GW of orbital AI compute. This means thousands of satellites per year, with even more to scale much higher afterward

Wall Street Apes

72,007 views • 1 month ago

Orbit AI Satellite Successfully Achieve World’s First Orbital AI Deployment and Launching Digital AI Sovereignty Decentralized Orbital AI Network Orbit AI Orbit AI🛰️ today announced that the first satellite, “OAI Genesis-1,” has successfully launched and entered Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Amidst fierce competition from tech giants (e.g., Starlink Starlink Elon Musk , Google AI Project Suncatcher) in space AI computing, this launch signifies Orbit AI’s position as the first to achieve real-world AI deployment, formally inaugurating its "Orbit AI Cloud Platform." Genesis-1 is equipped with NVIDIA NVIDIA AI Compute Cores, running a 2.6B parameter AI model for real-time analysis of infrared remote sensing data in space. By processing data on orbit, Genesis-1 drastically reduces critical information retrieval time (e.g., disaster alerts, maritime monitoring) from hours to mere seconds, while cutting transmission bandwidth costs by over 90%. Furthermore, Orbit AI has partnered with from energy company Powerbank (NASDAQ: SUUN) ( utilizing infinite solar power to achieve carbon-neutral computing and projecting a reduction in overall energy operational costs by 60%. Following its triumph at the BNB Chain Hackathon ( Orbit AI protocol is committed to creating an ultimate censorship-resistant deployment environment: Developers can deploy AI models, privacy applications, financial algorithms, and even blockchain nodes on the satellite network. This ensures that code and data operate in a physically isolated, neutral environment beyond the jurisdiction of major nations, guaranteeing extreme digital sovereignty and service resilience. Orbit AI will also leverage the RWA (Real World Assets) mechanism to allow community users to purchase satellite NFT shares, becoming co-owners of this space infrastructure and sharing in its compute revenues, thus building a community-owned orbital AI economy.
0:20

Orbit AI Satellite Successfully Achieve World’s First Orbital AI Deployment and Launching Digital AI Sovereignty Decentralized Orbital AI Network Orbit AI Orbit AI🛰️ today announced that the first satellite, “OAI Genesis-1,” has successfully launched and entered Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Amidst fierce competition from tech giants (e.g., Starlink Starlink Elon Musk , Google AI Project Suncatcher) in space AI computing, this launch signifies Orbit AI’s position as the first to achieve real-world AI deployment, formally inaugurating its "Orbit AI Cloud Platform." Genesis-1 is equipped with NVIDIA NVIDIA AI Compute Cores, running a 2.6B parameter AI model for real-time analysis of infrared remote sensing data in space. By processing data on orbit, Genesis-1 drastically reduces critical information retrieval time (e.g., disaster alerts, maritime monitoring) from hours to mere seconds, while cutting transmission bandwidth costs by over 90%. Furthermore, Orbit AI has partnered with from energy company Powerbank (NASDAQ: SUUN) ( utilizing infinite solar power to achieve carbon-neutral computing and projecting a reduction in overall energy operational costs by 60%. Following its triumph at the BNB Chain Hackathon ( Orbit AI protocol is committed to creating an ultimate censorship-resistant deployment environment: Developers can deploy AI models, privacy applications, financial algorithms, and even blockchain nodes on the satellite network. This ensures that code and data operate in a physically isolated, neutral environment beyond the jurisdiction of major nations, guaranteeing extreme digital sovereignty and service resilience. Orbit AI will also leverage the RWA (Real World Assets) mechanism to allow community users to purchase satellite NFT shares, becoming co-owners of this space infrastructure and sharing in its compute revenues, thus building a community-owned orbital AI economy.

Orbit AI🛰️

24,839 views • 9 months ago

Today, we’re taking a step toward truly galactic-scale capabilities. 🚀 We’re partnering with Sarvam to bring sovereign AI into orbit aboard India’s first orbital data centre satellite, a pathfinder mission bringing datacenter-class GPUs and high-performance remote sensing together in space. Built and operated by Pixxel, with Sarvam providing the AI backbone, the demonstrator marks a step toward making orbital data centres real, operational, and scalable from India. May the 4th be with us all! ✨
0:30

Today, we’re taking a step toward truly galactic-scale capabilities. 🚀 We’re partnering with Sarvam to bring sovereign AI into orbit aboard India’s first orbital data centre satellite, a pathfinder mission bringing datacenter-class GPUs and high-performance remote sensing together in space. Built and operated by Pixxel, with Sarvam providing the AI backbone, the demonstrator marks a step toward making orbital data centres real, operational, and scalable from India. May the 4th be with us all! ✨

Pixxel

203,673 views • 4 months ago

The difference between a Harvard Business School student and a Founder. HBS STUDENT: Lists all the reasons AI Space Compute is hard. FOUNDER: “ I don't disagree with you that building data centers in space is hard. Building data centers in space is extremely hard. . . If you think [demand] is going to double in the next three years - demand for energy from just data centers - and then double in the next three years after that, and then double in the next three years after that, then: We don’t have a choice. We literally have to put data centers in space. So we have to figure this stuff out.” Philip Johnston Starcloud Founders solve problems. Founders KNOW it will be HARD and do it anyway because it simply NEEDS TO BE DONE. That is founder mindset - and that mindset is what Harvard Business School can’t teach.
0:54

The difference between a Harvard Business School student and a Founder. HBS STUDENT: Lists all the reasons AI Space Compute is hard. FOUNDER: “ I don't disagree with you that building data centers in space is hard. Building data centers in space is extremely hard. . . If you think [demand] is going to double in the next three years - demand for energy from just data centers - and then double in the next three years after that, and then double in the next three years after that, then: We don’t have a choice. We literally have to put data centers in space. So we have to figure this stuff out.” Philip Johnston Starcloud Founders solve problems. Founders KNOW it will be HARD and do it anyway because it simply NEEDS TO BE DONE. That is founder mindset - and that mindset is what Harvard Business School can’t teach.

Amy

19,909 views • 6 months ago

Elon Musk just explained why the SpaceX IPO is an energy story and the energy constraint is why he believes space becomes the only viable path for AI to scale (Save this). The argument he is making is one of the most important and least understood things happening in technology right now. The United States currently consumes roughly 500 gigawatts of electricity on average. To double that capacity which is what continued AI expansion on the current terrestrial trajectory would eventually require would mean building as many power plants as currently exist in the entire country. He is not arguing that this is technically impossible, just that communities are not willing to accept it, that permitting timelines make it unrealistic, and that the hard ceiling on Earth based power generation means the expansion of AI compute will eventually hit a wall that no amount of capital can overcome on the ground. His observation is that in space, that wall does not exist. A solar panel in orbit produces roughly five times more power than the same panel on Earth, operates in continuous sunlight uninterrupted by weather or nighttime, and benefits from the vacuum of space as a completely passive cooling system meaning the two largest operating costs of any terrestrial data center, energy and cooling, are effectively eliminated. He then said that you could theoretically increase harnessed energy by a factor of one million and still be using less than a millionth of the sun's total energy output. This is the underlying physics of why SpaceX filed with the FCC to launch up to one million solar powered AI satellites, and why they described that constellation in their own filing as a first step toward becoming a Kardashev Type II civilization capable of harnessing the full power of the sun. To understand what makes this credible rather than visionary, you need to understand what SpaceX already controls that no other company on earth possesses. Starship, once operating at full cadence, can deliver 100 to 150 tons of payload to orbit per launch, at a target cost per kilogram that is an order of magnitude lower than any existing vehicle. Musk's stated ambition is to scale Starship to 10,000 to 30,000 launches per year, a frequency that would allow the deployment of orbital compute infrastructure at a pace that is currently unimaginable with any existing rocket. He told xAI staff earlier this year that achieving space-based AI at scale will eventually require manufacturing facilities on the moon, building solar panels and heat dissipation structures from lunar silicon and aluminum, and launching them into orbit from there rather than from Earth's surface because the moon's lower gravity makes the economics of launch dramatically more favorable. SpaceX's S-1 filing explicitly states that its launch capabilities could enable massive AI compute satellite constellations with the potential for millions of satellites for orbital data centers, with the first launch potentially occurring as soon as 2028. Google and Alphabet are already in advanced talks with SpaceX about deploying space-based data centers. Starcloud, a startup running Nvidia H100 GPUs in orbit, has already validated that high-performance AI inference workloads can operate in space, with plans to scale to five gigawatts of orbital compute power by 2035. This is why Musk believes the cost crossover happens in two to three years because SpaceX's launch cost trajectory intersects with the accelerating energy constraint on the ground in a way that makes space genuinely cheaper, faster, and less regulated at exactly the moment AI demand is hitting its hardest physical limits.
1:01

Elon Musk just explained why the SpaceX IPO is an energy story and the energy constraint is why he believes space becomes the only viable path for AI to scale (Save this). The argument he is making is one of the most important and least understood things happening in technology right now. The United States currently consumes roughly 500 gigawatts of electricity on average. To double that capacity which is what continued AI expansion on the current terrestrial trajectory would eventually require would mean building as many power plants as currently exist in the entire country. He is not arguing that this is technically impossible, just that communities are not willing to accept it, that permitting timelines make it unrealistic, and that the hard ceiling on Earth based power generation means the expansion of AI compute will eventually hit a wall that no amount of capital can overcome on the ground. His observation is that in space, that wall does not exist. A solar panel in orbit produces roughly five times more power than the same panel on Earth, operates in continuous sunlight uninterrupted by weather or nighttime, and benefits from the vacuum of space as a completely passive cooling system meaning the two largest operating costs of any terrestrial data center, energy and cooling, are effectively eliminated. He then said that you could theoretically increase harnessed energy by a factor of one million and still be using less than a millionth of the sun's total energy output. This is the underlying physics of why SpaceX filed with the FCC to launch up to one million solar powered AI satellites, and why they described that constellation in their own filing as a first step toward becoming a Kardashev Type II civilization capable of harnessing the full power of the sun. To understand what makes this credible rather than visionary, you need to understand what SpaceX already controls that no other company on earth possesses. Starship, once operating at full cadence, can deliver 100 to 150 tons of payload to orbit per launch, at a target cost per kilogram that is an order of magnitude lower than any existing vehicle. Musk's stated ambition is to scale Starship to 10,000 to 30,000 launches per year, a frequency that would allow the deployment of orbital compute infrastructure at a pace that is currently unimaginable with any existing rocket. He told xAI staff earlier this year that achieving space-based AI at scale will eventually require manufacturing facilities on the moon, building solar panels and heat dissipation structures from lunar silicon and aluminum, and launching them into orbit from there rather than from Earth's surface because the moon's lower gravity makes the economics of launch dramatically more favorable. SpaceX's S-1 filing explicitly states that its launch capabilities could enable massive AI compute satellite constellations with the potential for millions of satellites for orbital data centers, with the first launch potentially occurring as soon as 2028. Google and Alphabet are already in advanced talks with SpaceX about deploying space-based data centers. Starcloud, a startup running Nvidia H100 GPUs in orbit, has already validated that high-performance AI inference workloads can operate in space, with plans to scale to five gigawatts of orbital compute power by 2035. This is why Musk believes the cost crossover happens in two to three years because SpaceX's launch cost trajectory intersects with the accelerating energy constraint on the ground in a way that makes space genuinely cheaper, faster, and less regulated at exactly the moment AI demand is hitting its hardest physical limits.

Milk Road AI

12,738 views • 3 months ago

Elon gave one of the biggest updates yet on where SpaceXAI is going: “Probably in four or five years, AI will be 99% of the value of SpaceX” SpaceX’s value by then will be “some astronomical number” Here’s where Starmind will be built SpaceXAI is now going all in on space-based data centers, with a new partnership with NVIDIA to build space-optimized Vera Rubin systems planned to start going to orbit next year The Gigasat Factory for Starmind will be built in Bastrop alongside SpaceX’s existing operations, as the company prepares to manufacture AI satellites at massive scale and build huge amounts of AI compute in orbit
1:11

Elon gave one of the biggest updates yet on where SpaceXAI is going: “Probably in four or five years, AI will be 99% of the value of SpaceX” SpaceX’s value by then will be “some astronomical number” Here’s where Starmind will be built SpaceXAI is now going all in on space-based data centers, with a new partnership with NVIDIA to build space-optimized Vera Rubin systems planned to start going to orbit next year The Gigasat Factory for Starmind will be built in Bastrop alongside SpaceX’s existing operations, as the company prepares to manufacture AI satellites at massive scale and build huge amounts of AI compute in orbit

X Freeze

17,015 views • 21 days ago

Now is the time to meet NASA's call to transition its low-Earth orbit presence from the International Space Station (ISS) to a lower-cost commercial option. Vast is ready to deliver for America and our international partners. We will be delivering the world's first, most affordable, commercial space station in 2026: Haven-1. Haven-1 will be Vast's first step toward a long-term commercial presence in orbit. Purpose-built for scientific research, in-space manufacturing, and human habitation, Haven-1 will ensure humanity’s presence in low-Earth orbit. Backed by a world-class team and built with speed, safety, and efficiency at its core, this marks the next era in human space exploration—not just reaching orbit, but staying there. Learn more about how we are making it happen.
2:58

Now is the time to meet NASA's call to transition its low-Earth orbit presence from the International Space Station (ISS) to a lower-cost commercial option. Vast is ready to deliver for America and our international partners. We will be delivering the world's first, most affordable, commercial space station in 2026: Haven-1. Haven-1 will be Vast's first step toward a long-term commercial presence in orbit. Purpose-built for scientific research, in-space manufacturing, and human habitation, Haven-1 will ensure humanity’s presence in low-Earth orbit. Backed by a world-class team and built with speed, safety, and efficiency at its core, this marks the next era in human space exploration—not just reaching orbit, but staying there. Learn more about how we are making it happen.

Vast

97,541 views • 1 year ago

NEWS: SpaceX has detailed Starmind, its plan for up to 1 million AI compute satellites in orbit, on a new website. Starmind moves AI data centers into space. Each satellite runs AI compute in orbit and beams results to Earth through Starlink lasers. The satellites draw constant solar power and cool for free in the vacuum. SpaceX filed that plan with the FCC in January. The first satellite, AI1, carries 150 kW of peak compute and spans 70 meters. Starship will carry 30 to 50 AI1 satellites per launch. SpaceX will build them at a new Gigasat factory in Bastrop, Texas. The AI chips come from a planned SpaceX and Tesla fab called Terafab. Two prototypes target early 2027, with thousands of satellites from late 2027.
0:51

NEWS: SpaceX has detailed Starmind, its plan for up to 1 million AI compute satellites in orbit, on a new website. Starmind moves AI data centers into space. Each satellite runs AI compute in orbit and beams results to Earth through Starlink lasers. The satellites draw constant solar power and cool for free in the vacuum. SpaceX filed that plan with the FCC in January. The first satellite, AI1, carries 150 kW of peak compute and spans 70 meters. Starship will carry 30 to 50 AI1 satellites per launch. SpaceX will build them at a new Gigasat factory in Bastrop, Texas. The AI chips come from a planned SpaceX and Tesla fab called Terafab. Two prototypes target early 2027, with thousands of satellites from late 2027.

Muskonomy

26,421 views • 2 months ago

This is the next big plan for SpaceX: AI Data Centers in Space. • To achieve even a small fraction of a Kardashev Type II civilization (harnessing the full energy of the Sun), AI compute will require orders of magnitude more energy than Earth can ever provide. • Earth only intercepts about 1–2 billionths of the Sun’s total energy output. • Massive-scale AI (e.g., a million times more energy than Earth could produce) can only be powered by capturing far more solar energy in space. • Space-based solar-powered AI satellites/compute clusters are therefore inevitable. • In space, sunlight is continuous (no night, no clouds, no atmosphere), so no batteries are needed. • Solar panels in space can be extremely lightweight and cheap (no glass, no storm-proof framing required). • Cooling in space is dramatically easier and simpler: just radiate heat directly into the cold vacuum — no water, no fans, no liquids, no massive cooling infrastructure. • Most of the mass/volume of current supercomputer racks (e.g., GB300) is cooling hardware; in space that largely disappears. • The cost-effectiveness of electricity and compute in space will soon be overwhelmingly better than on Earth. • Elon’s Prediction: within ~5 years (by ~2030), the lowest-cost way to run large-scale AI will be solar-powered satellites in space. • A terawatt/year of AI compute is essentially impossible on Earth with any realistic build-out of power plants. • Scaling both power generation and cooling on Earth at the required rate is physically and politically unfeasible.
3:55

This is the next big plan for SpaceX: AI Data Centers in Space. • To achieve even a small fraction of a Kardashev Type II civilization (harnessing the full energy of the Sun), AI compute will require orders of magnitude more energy than Earth can ever provide. • Earth only intercepts about 1–2 billionths of the Sun’s total energy output. • Massive-scale AI (e.g., a million times more energy than Earth could produce) can only be powered by capturing far more solar energy in space. • Space-based solar-powered AI satellites/compute clusters are therefore inevitable. • In space, sunlight is continuous (no night, no clouds, no atmosphere), so no batteries are needed. • Solar panels in space can be extremely lightweight and cheap (no glass, no storm-proof framing required). • Cooling in space is dramatically easier and simpler: just radiate heat directly into the cold vacuum — no water, no fans, no liquids, no massive cooling infrastructure. • Most of the mass/volume of current supercomputer racks (e.g., GB300) is cooling hardware; in space that largely disappears. • The cost-effectiveness of electricity and compute in space will soon be overwhelmingly better than on Earth. • Elon’s Prediction: within ~5 years (by ~2030), the lowest-cost way to run large-scale AI will be solar-powered satellites in space. • A terawatt/year of AI compute is essentially impossible on Earth with any realistic build-out of power plants. • Scaling both power generation and cooling on Earth at the required rate is physically and politically unfeasible.

Nic Cruz Patane

49,035 views • 9 months ago

In a first for India, homegrown startup Pixxel teams up with India’s AI unicorn Sarvam to take data centres to the orbit🚀 Pixxel Founder & CEO Awais Ahmed tells Shereen Bhan why the future of AI infrastructure may not be on Earth at all. ‘SpaceX now has announced its own plans for launching a million data center satellites.’ ‘We have seen what Sarvam has been doing the last few months with sovereign AI models that they've trained and running inference there, and we have been focused on what we can do with the infrastructure that we are building in Bangalore, to build and launch better, bigger, better, larger satellites.’ Powered by NVIDIA GPUs, the satellite will run sovereign AI models directly in space using solar energy, orbital cooling and real-time AI inference. And the timeline? ‘Let’s see what can be done with one satellite this year’ #YoungTurksReloaded #Pixxel #Sarvam #AI #SpaceTech #OrbitalDataCentre #NVIDIA #SovereignAI
2:51

In a first for India, homegrown startup Pixxel teams up with India’s AI unicorn Sarvam to take data centres to the orbit🚀 Pixxel Founder & CEO Awais Ahmed tells Shereen Bhan why the future of AI infrastructure may not be on Earth at all. ‘SpaceX now has announced its own plans for launching a million data center satellites.’ ‘We have seen what Sarvam has been doing the last few months with sovereign AI models that they've trained and running inference there, and we have been focused on what we can do with the infrastructure that we are building in Bangalore, to build and launch better, bigger, better, larger satellites.’ Powered by NVIDIA GPUs, the satellite will run sovereign AI models directly in space using solar energy, orbital cooling and real-time AI inference. And the timeline? ‘Let’s see what can be done with one satellite this year’ #YoungTurksReloaded #Pixxel #Sarvam #AI #SpaceTech #OrbitalDataCentre #NVIDIA #SovereignAI

CNBC-TV18

30,789 views • 4 months ago

This is one of the more interesting cases I’ve heard for why we should put AI data centers in space. Yes, it would benefit a few billionaires, but it could also lessen the environmental toll on Earth. And we’re going to need to cut AI's carbon footprint in as many ways as we can. Space architect Ariel Ekblaw and I went deep on the opportunities—and many challenges—of building AI infrastructure in orbit. Watch our conversation here: Produced by Atlantic Re:think, The Atlantic's creative marketing studio, in collaboration with PwC.
1:15

This is one of the more interesting cases I’ve heard for why we should put AI data centers in space. Yes, it would benefit a few billionaires, but it could also lessen the environmental toll on Earth. And we’re going to need to cut AI's carbon footprint in as many ways as we can. Space architect Ariel Ekblaw and I went deep on the opportunities—and many challenges—of building AI infrastructure in orbit. Watch our conversation here: Produced by Atlantic Re:think, The Atlantic's creative marketing studio, in collaboration with PwC.

nxthompson

25,876 views • 4 months ago

🚨 Elon Musk says SpaceX is going public because the company is entering a major investment phase Speaking at J.P. Morgan, he highlighted plans for 100,000+ next-generation Starlink satellites, AI data centers in space, and continued development of Starship, which he believes can dramatically lower the cost of reaching orbit. Musk says these projects could open the door to entirely new industries in space. 🚀 $SPCX 00:00 Welcome to JPMorgan 02:45 Why SpaceX Goes Public 03:28 Starlink V3 and Space Energy 07:46 Moon to Mars Roadmap 10:18 Starship Reusability Breakthrough 12:06 Next Gen Starlink Plans 13:54 AI Data Centers in Orbit 15:07 Terafab and US Chip Supply 16:35 AI Strategy and Grok 18:38 Culture and Building the Bench
21:07

🚨 Elon Musk says SpaceX is going public because the company is entering a major investment phase Speaking at J.P. Morgan, he highlighted plans for 100,000+ next-generation Starlink satellites, AI data centers in space, and continued development of Starship, which he believes can dramatically lower the cost of reaching orbit. Musk says these projects could open the door to entirely new industries in space. 🚀 $SPCX 00:00 Welcome to JPMorgan 02:45 Why SpaceX Goes Public 03:28 Starlink V3 and Space Energy 07:46 Moon to Mars Roadmap 10:18 Starship Reusability Breakthrough 12:06 Next Gen Starlink Plans 13:54 AI Data Centers in Orbit 15:07 Terafab and US Chip Supply 16:35 AI Strategy and Grok 18:38 Culture and Building the Bench

Herbert Ong

200,262 views • 3 months ago

We sat down with Philip Johnston, co-founder and CEO of Starcloud, at MIT to discuss why the future of data centers might be in space. After graduating Y Combinator less than 2 years ago, Starcloud just raised an impressive $170M Series A at a $1.1B valuation led by Benchmark and EQT Ventures & Growth. The conversation covers everything from solar physics and cooling systems to GPU economics, radiation hardening, launch costs, and satellite design. Philip also shares what it takes to build a unicorn deeptech startup. We discuss his experience with YC, the skepticism around their demoday launch, and the crazy last minute race to get Starcloud’s first satellite onboard their scheduled Falcon flight. Full episode is here on X and at any of the links below (see comment). Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 01:12 - What is Starcloud? 02:44 - Why do data centers need to go to space? 06:15 - Can’t we just build more solar panels on earth? 11:10 - Economic analysis of Starcloud 19:56 - How does Starcloud’s cooling work? 28:26 - Training an LLM in space 32:07 - Addressing critics on space Twitter 34:23 - Is Starcloud overfunded? 35:59 - Will demand for data centers keep going up? 38:11 - GPU lifespan and disposal in space 39:47 - Bus structures 41:43 - Starcloud’s origin and founders 49:29 - Fundraising, Competition, and Meeting Expectations 53:29 - Satellite size and collisions 56:29 - Manufacturing Bottlenecks 1:00:20 - Starcloud 1 tests 1:01:57 - Acceleration after YC 1:03:43 - Testing on Earth 1:05:06 - Motivations for Starcloud 1:06:45 - Data centers on the Moon 1:08:12 - Interacting with AI companies 1:08:18 - What’s next for Starcloud? 1:14:01 - Other uses for Starcloud satellites 1:17:56 - Lunar hotels and space elevators 1:24:28 - Complementary business ideas to Starcloud 1:29:51 - Philip’s competitive twin 1:32:18 - Philip and Mike’s thoughts on YC 1:36:04 - Advice for young entrepreneurs Elon Musk Scott Manley Kyle Hill Hank Green
1:37:33

We sat down with Philip Johnston, co-founder and CEO of Starcloud, at MIT to discuss why the future of data centers might be in space. After graduating Y Combinator less than 2 years ago, Starcloud just raised an impressive $170M Series A at a $1.1B valuation led by Benchmark and EQT Ventures & Growth. The conversation covers everything from solar physics and cooling systems to GPU economics, radiation hardening, launch costs, and satellite design. Philip also shares what it takes to build a unicorn deeptech startup. We discuss his experience with YC, the skepticism around their demoday launch, and the crazy last minute race to get Starcloud’s first satellite onboard their scheduled Falcon flight. Full episode is here on X and at any of the links below (see comment). Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 01:12 - What is Starcloud? 02:44 - Why do data centers need to go to space? 06:15 - Can’t we just build more solar panels on earth? 11:10 - Economic analysis of Starcloud 19:56 - How does Starcloud’s cooling work? 28:26 - Training an LLM in space 32:07 - Addressing critics on space Twitter 34:23 - Is Starcloud overfunded? 35:59 - Will demand for data centers keep going up? 38:11 - GPU lifespan and disposal in space 39:47 - Bus structures 41:43 - Starcloud’s origin and founders 49:29 - Fundraising, Competition, and Meeting Expectations 53:29 - Satellite size and collisions 56:29 - Manufacturing Bottlenecks 1:00:20 - Starcloud 1 tests 1:01:57 - Acceleration after YC 1:03:43 - Testing on Earth 1:05:06 - Motivations for Starcloud 1:06:45 - Data centers on the Moon 1:08:12 - Interacting with AI companies 1:08:18 - What’s next for Starcloud? 1:14:01 - Other uses for Starcloud satellites 1:17:56 - Lunar hotels and space elevators 1:24:28 - Complementary business ideas to Starcloud 1:29:51 - Philip’s competitive twin 1:32:18 - Philip and Mike’s thoughts on YC 1:36:04 - Advice for young entrepreneurs Elon Musk Scott Manley Kyle Hill Hank Green

632nm

46,599 views • 5 months ago

We are thrilled to announce that Space and Time Labs has secured a $20M Series A, bringing our total funding to $50 million. 🚀⏳ SxT is empowering the community to own their future in an AI-powered world by providing the tools they need to build sophisticated, data-driven applications, tokenize them onchain, and win in the AI economy. Generate a new world with Space and Time, secured by our sub-second ZK coprocessor. Exclusive by FORTUNE:
1:18

We are thrilled to announce that Space and Time Labs has secured a $20M Series A, bringing our total funding to $50 million. 🚀⏳ SxT is empowering the community to own their future in an AI-powered world by providing the tools they need to build sophisticated, data-driven applications, tokenize them onchain, and win in the AI economy. Generate a new world with Space and Time, secured by our sub-second ZK coprocessor. Exclusive by FORTUNE:

Space and Time

286,589 views • 2 years ago

Samo Burja on why the first real reason to industrialize the moon will be building weapons, not data centers: "Weaponry on the moon might prove surprisingly important. You can build a bunker on the moon. In Earth orbit that's not possible, you'll have a shooting war where the satellites are destroyed pretty quickly." "I'm bearish on stealth technology. Even if there are thousands of things in orbit, it's easy to do a full sweep just by pointing cameras at space. Some photons bounce the wrong way, use some AI, and you get a lock on where that satellite is orbiting." "On the moon, you can go under the surface. You can have launch sites, make drones, make satellites there. That might be where the capability for space warfare truly develops." "I'd bet more on that than AI data centers, because the GPU is about the most complex thing humans have made. There might be a military industrial drive to lunar industrialization." Samo Burja
1:53

Samo Burja on why the first real reason to industrialize the moon will be building weapons, not data centers: "Weaponry on the moon might prove surprisingly important. You can build a bunker on the moon. In Earth orbit that's not possible, you'll have a shooting war where the satellites are destroyed pretty quickly." "I'm bearish on stealth technology. Even if there are thousands of things in orbit, it's easy to do a full sweep just by pointing cameras at space. Some photons bounce the wrong way, use some AI, and you get a lock on where that satellite is orbiting." "On the moon, you can go under the surface. You can have launch sites, make drones, make satellites there. That might be where the capability for space warfare truly develops." "I'd bet more on that than AI data centers, because the GPU is about the most complex thing humans have made. There might be a military industrial drive to lunar industrialization." Samo Burja

MTS

13,480 views • 1 month ago