Starcloud, a startup developing satellites that perform AI inference in orbit, announced a $250 million extension to its March $170 million Series A round, raising its valuation to $2.3 billion.

CEO Philip Johnston said the capital will fund a larger manufacturing facility and advance the Starcloud‑3 spacecraft, which is planned for launch on SpaceX’s Starship rocket.

SpaceX will retire its Falcon 9 vehicle in 2028 and shift development to Starship, a larger rocket that has not yet flown.

Other launch providers, including Blue Origin’s New Glenn and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan, are also limited in flight frequency, and Rocket Lab’s Neutron is not yet operational.

Starcloud plans to launch two 8 kW compute satellites, called Starcloud‑2, on rideshare flights in 2027 for U.S. government customers.

It is also considering a dedicated Falcon 9 launch and contracts with additional providers.

The company has applied to the FCC for permission to operate 88,000 spacecraft.

“We need to secure an enormous amount of launch capacity,” Johnston said.

“If we cannot book SpaceX launches in 2029, that will be challenging for us,” he added.

The extension was led by Manhattan West Ventures and included participation from Nvidia, which contributed $25 million, and Cisco, as well as Benchmark, EQT, Soma, NFX, 776, Cedar Capital, Goanna Capital and Standard Capital.

Starcloud is the only known company operating an Nvidia H100 GPU in orbit and has trained a model using it, a capability not used by other space GPUs.

The company is sharing its data with Nvidia as the chipmaker develops its first space‑specific GPU, the Vera Rubin Space‑1, which it hopes to fly in late 2028.

Engineers are evaluating the chip’s thermal requirements, radiator size, radiation shielding placement and launch‑survival hardening.

The company now employs 25 people and is building production lines in a 100,000‑square‑foot facility in Woodinville, Washington, near SpaceX and Amazon satellite manufacturing sites.

Uncertainty over launch schedules remains a central challenge.