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Why Would We Need Data Centers in Space? I interviewed co-founder and CEO of Starcloud, Philip Johnston to learn exactly why even if AI is a bubble, data centers in space would still prosper. Philip Johnston

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39,490 次观看 • 8 个月前 •via X (Twitter)

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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

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 次观看 • 20 天前

Join me and Starcloud's Co-Founder & CEO Philip Johnston to talk about the greatest breakthrough in AI yet - Data Centers in Space. Join Farzad Corner for early access to this pocast, plus a ton of other benefits. Link in replies

Join me and Starcloud's Co-Founder & CEO Philip Johnston to talk about the greatest breakthrough in AI yet - Data Centers in Space. Join Farzad Corner for early access to this pocast, plus a ton of other benefits. Link in replies

FARZAD.FM

17,287 次观看 • 8 个月前

In the SpaceX IPO debate, StarCloud CEO Philip Johnston responds to Tim Farrar’s doubts on performance and space data centers. “To say that SpaceX is doing data centers in space for the story because it's worried about missing its numbers… was the dumbest thing I'd heard all in a quite a long time.” Full episode:

In the SpaceX IPO debate, StarCloud CEO Philip Johnston responds to Tim Farrar’s doubts on performance and space data centers. “To say that SpaceX is doing data centers in space for the story because it's worried about missing its numbers… was the dumbest thing I'd heard all in a quite a long time.” Full episode:

The Information

46,961 次观看 • 8 个月前

"The 1% aren't going to be able to just afford a G650. They're going to be able to afford a $10 million data center for themselves" - @jason This week's roundtable: 1. Anastasios Angelopoulos @ML_Angelopolous, CEO of Arena.ai. 2. Nick Harris Nicholas Harris, CEO of Lightmatter, photonic computing chips. 3. Philip Johnston Philip Johnston, CEO of Starcloud, building megawatt data centers in space. TWiAI Episode 13 out now: On YouTube

"The 1% aren't going to be able to just afford a G650. They're going to be able to afford a $10 million data center for themselves" - @jason This week's roundtable: 1. Anastasios Angelopoulos @ML_Angelopolous, CEO of Arena.ai. 2. Nick Harris Nicholas Harris, CEO of Lightmatter, photonic computing chips. 3. Philip Johnston Philip Johnston, CEO of Starcloud, building megawatt data centers in space. TWiAI Episode 13 out now: On YouTube

This Week in AI

39,752 次观看 • 3 个月前

Datacenters in space? He has one already there. Introducing Philip Johnston, founder/CEO of Starcloud which has plans to put 88,000 datacenters up in space. We talk about how it all works and how real it all is.

Datacenters in space? He has one already there. Introducing Philip Johnston, founder/CEO of Starcloud which has plans to put 88,000 datacenters up in space. We talk about how it all works and how real it all is.

Robert Scoble

81,984 次观看 • 27 天前

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.

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 次观看 • 6 个月前

Starcloud CEO Philip Johnston joins Mo Islam and I at the NYSE. "In order to make data centers in space work, you really need the BOM costs for a 200 kW satellite to be on the order of 1 million dollars." We chat: - Building low cost sats - 20 yr terrestrial vs. 5 yr space - Merge with a launch company? - Does Starcloud exist if Earth's bottlenecks vanish? - Better leader: Altman or Dario - Building sats cheaper than Starlink - GPU failure rate

Starcloud CEO Philip Johnston joins Mo Islam and I at the NYSE. "In order to make data centers in space work, you really need the BOM costs for a 200 kW satellite to be on the order of 1 million dollars." We chat: - Building low cost sats - 20 yr terrestrial vs. 5 yr space - Merge with a launch company? - Does Starcloud exist if Earth's bottlenecks vanish? - Better leader: Altman or Dario - Building sats cheaper than Starlink - GPU failure rate

Jack Kuhr

15,180 次观看 • 3 个月前

You have $1 Trillion to build the compute backbone for AGI. How much goes to space? 100% So says Philip Johnston of Starcloud Hear why…

You have $1 Trillion to build the compute backbone for AGI. How much goes to space? 100% So says Philip Johnston of Starcloud Hear why…

Pat Grady

23,850 次观看 • 5 个月前

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

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 次观看 • 4 个月前

Fun to speak about data centers in space and Starcloud at @Sequoia’s AI day a few weeks ago. Thanks for having me! 🤓

Fun to speak about data centers in space and Starcloud at @Sequoia’s AI day a few weeks ago. Thanks for having me! 🤓

Philip Johnston

11,226 次观看 • 3 个月前

ASML CEO on Elon Musk's Data Centers in space and Terafab: "I think you need a certain amount of data centers and they will be in space, they will be on the earth. I think the discussion about data centers in space is to address another potential bottleneck in the ecosystem, which is energy. I think the discussion around putting data center in space is there because if you do that, the energy consumption or the energy availability will be there, about trying to solve another potential big issue, which is energy for data center. I think the Terafab is an example of a major fab project."

ASML CEO on Elon Musk's Data Centers in space and Terafab: "I think you need a certain amount of data centers and they will be in space, they will be on the earth. I think the discussion about data centers in space is to address another potential bottleneck in the ecosystem, which is energy. I think the discussion around putting data center in space is there because if you do that, the energy consumption or the energy availability will be there, about trying to solve another potential big issue, which is energy for data center. I think the Terafab is an example of a major fab project."

DogeDesigner

48,139 次观看 • 2 个月前

🚨Byron Donalds says Floridians should EMBRACE data centers. “You're going to have data centers. We need to embrace that, not run away from that. We have actual land in our state that is still pristine, available to use. We can build up that stuff. I would rather build a data center in one of these deals or probably FOUR data centers.”

🚨Byron Donalds says Floridians should EMBRACE data centers. “You're going to have data centers. We need to embrace that, not run away from that. We have actual land in our state that is still pristine, available to use. We can build up that stuff. I would rather build a data center in one of these deals or probably FOUR data centers.”

Chris Nelson 🏝️🇺🇸

31,664 次观看 • 1 个月前

$RKLB partner Starcloud is building data centers in orbit & about to launch $NVDA H100s into space for the first time in a few weeks 👀

$RKLB partner Starcloud is building data centers in orbit & about to launch $NVDA H100s into space for the first time in a few weeks 👀

Shay Boloor

138,220 次观看 • 10 个月前

.Crusoe CEO Chase Lochmiller on why they are building data centers in space: “In outer space… we have access to solar that's powered 24/7 at a very, very low cost”. Watch the full episode:

.Crusoe CEO Chase Lochmiller on why they are building data centers in space: “In outer space… we have access to solar that's powered 24/7 at a very, very low cost”. Watch the full episode:

The Information

11,293 次观看 • 10 个月前

"If you're betting against space data centers, you're betting against compute growing." - Pranav Myana, author of the recently viral model on space compute "Our minds haven't evolved to understand just how much space there is in space." "If you don't believe there's going to be an AI revolution, if you don't believe compute is going to grow exponentially, you don't believe in [data centers in space]."

"If you're betting against space data centers, you're betting against compute growing." - Pranav Myana, author of the recently viral model on space compute "Our minds haven't evolved to understand just how much space there is in space." "If you don't believe there's going to be an AI revolution, if you don't believe compute is going to grow exponentially, you don't believe in [data centers in space]."

TBPN

31,939 次观看 • 8 个月前

CEO Jensen Huang’s space ambitions get a speedy rundown at #NVIDIAGTC. Simply put: “We’re going to build data centers in space.”

CEO Jensen Huang’s space ambitions get a speedy rundown at #NVIDIAGTC. Simply put: “We’re going to build data centers in space.”

TechCrunch

55,866 次观看 • 5 个月前

Jim Cramer says $CRWV could play a role in orbital data centers if AI compute eventually moves to space. He said CoreWeave has one of the best handles on building data centers quickly making it a name to watch if the space-compute thesis becomes real.

Jim Cramer says $CRWV could play a role in orbital data centers if AI compute eventually moves to space. He said CoreWeave has one of the best handles on building data centers quickly making it a name to watch if the space-compute thesis becomes real.

Shay Boloor

181,013 次观看 • 2 个月前

🚨 Sam Altman Throws Shade at Elon’s Vision of Putting Data Centers in Space “Putting data centers in space is ridiculous … Do the very rough math of launch costs relative to the cost of power we can do on Earth … Orbital data centers are not something that's going to matter at scale this decade.”

🚨 Sam Altman Throws Shade at Elon’s Vision of Putting Data Centers in Space “Putting data centers in space is ridiculous … Do the very rough math of launch costs relative to the cost of power we can do on Earth … Orbital data centers are not something that's going to matter at scale this decade.”

Chief Nerd

261,718 次观看 • 6 个月前

$NVDA CEO Jensen Huang confirmed Vera Rubin is heading to space while saying Earth will still carry most data centers & energy demand “for some time to come.” He sees no physical limit to space-based data centers but says the technical challenges still need to be solved first.

$NVDA CEO Jensen Huang confirmed Vera Rubin is heading to space while saying Earth will still carry most data centers & energy demand “for some time to come.” He sees no physical limit to space-based data centers but says the technical challenges still need to be solved first.

Shay Boloor

207,107 次观看 • 3 个月前

Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos: Within 10-20 years, the giant, gigawatt-scale data centers for AI training clusters will be built in space This would leverage 24/7 solar power and make space a key part of Earth's industrial and technological infrastructure

Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos: Within 10-20 years, the giant, gigawatt-scale data centers for AI training clusters will be built in space This would leverage 24/7 solar power and make space a key part of Earth's industrial and technological infrastructure

Haider.

728,816 次观看 • 10 个月前