CategorySpace
Overview
Space compute company building solar-powered data centers that operate in orbit. YC S24 startup, fastest unicorn in YC history (17 months post-demo day). Founded Jan 2024 by Philip Johnston (CEO), Ezra Feilden (CTO), and Adi Oltean (Chief Engineer) in Seattle.
Launched Starcloud-1 (Nov 2025) with Nvidia H100 — first to train an LLM in space. USD 170M Series A (Mar 2026) at $1.1B valuation led by Benchmark. FCC filing for 88,000-satellite constellation. Starcloud-2 launching Oct 2026 with Nvidia B200.
Verified record
- Verified deployments
- None on file
- Active incidents
- None on file
Key facts
Series A (reported, Mar 2026)
First satellite (reported, Mar 2026)
Roadmap (reported, Mar 2026)
Data & sources
News coverage
1
1 source backing this record.View all →
Models (1)
View all models →Starcloud on the deployment map
View the global mapStarcloud has no verified deployments on the DEPLOY registry yet. Explore the deployment map by place and type.
No verified deployments for Starcloud on the DEPLOY record yet. Track Starcloud to know the moment the first one is verified.
Relationships
Current leadership (1)
- Philip Johnston CEO & Co-foundersecondary-verified
Founders (1)
Safety record
No incidents on record for Starcloud.
Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →
Recent coverage
Starcloud in third-party press
Peers
56 peers across 1 segment. Every Starcloud competitor derived from shared form-factor and application-domain edges.
space(56)
36 companies in this segment · low_concentration (HHI 1188.742650389188) · leader K2 Space at 2172%
- Aetherfluxdirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- Agile Space Industriesdirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- Airbusdirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- Albedo Spacedirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- Astrobotic Technologydirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- Astroscaledirect competitor(inferred)moderate
Mentioned on (3)
Registry pages whose text names Starcloud.
Companies (1)
People (2)
Financial state
- Total funding
- $170.0M
Each numeric field carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.
Funding rounds (1)
- Series A2026-03-30
$170M(reported)
Investors: EQT Ventures (co_lead), Y Combinator (follow), Manhattan West (follow), Dennis Muilenburg (follow), Benchmark (co_lead), NFX (follow), Nebular (follow), Adjacent (follow), Fuse Ventures (follow), Monolith Power Systems (follow), Stephen Wilson (follow), Kevin Johnson (follow), 776 (follow)
Timeline
Every recorded move in Starcloud’s history, most recent first: funding rounds, partnerships, acquisitions, supply-chain starts, key hires, and press.
Funding roundSeries A funding round
2026-03-30Series A raising $170000000
Recent activity
Every change to this record is dated, sourced, and independently verified where marked.
- Record createdAug 8, 2026
Added to the verified registry
Sources (1)
Common questions
What is Starcloud?
What does Starcloud make?
Is Starcloud publicly traded?
Who competes with Starcloud?
Who is the CEO of Starcloud?
How can I invest in Starcloud?
Where is Starcloud headquartered?
How much funding has Starcloud raised?
Who owns Starcloud?
Where does Starcloud operate robots?
Is Starcloud a top robotics company?
When was Starcloud founded?
Is Starcloud safe?
Methodology: Verified · 1 source (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-10-10
Verification posture
Verified
Low confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-10-10
Sources by quality tier
- 1
- secondary-industry-publication
- Industry publication
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for Starcloud.Peer companies
- Impulse Space6 models
- AstroForge3 models
- Astrobotic Technology3 models
- Blackswan Space3 models
- China National Space Administration3 models
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory3 models
In the press
Recent coverage mentioning Starcloud from third-party publications. Automatically surfaced; not part of the verified registry record.
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /companies/starcloud.md
- RSS feed: /companies/starcloud/feed.xml
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/companies/8bd99611-a452-4406-8fac-0594fac675d2
- Revision history: /companies/starcloud/history
- Data documentation: /data
- Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP
Peer companies
- Impulse Space6 models
- AstroForge3 models
- Astrobotic Technology3 models
- Blackswan Space3 models
- China National Space Administration3 models
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory3 models
Video
Nvidia-backed startup Starcloud is working to create data centers in space. NBC News' Gadi Schwartz talks to CEO of Starcloud Philip Johnston about the company's mission and how it will work. For more context and news
Starcloud Founder & CEO Philip Johnston believes data centers in space are the first step to becoming a Kardashev level civilization. And today, Starcloud annou
Hello, curious minds, Elaira here! Let me show you the stories shaping our intelligent future. – Starcloud is taking data centers off the planet — where solar
Heat Index
Category contender75/100
A composite of competitive footprint, funding, press velocity, active partnerships, and supply-chain edges. Different from the Intelligence score below (which is per-form-factor productization). Non-robotics companies cap at 25.
Reality vs attention
Starcloud draws attention at the 27th percentile but verifies reality at the insufficient-data level among space robots.
6-month trend
Analysis
Well-capitalized with $170M raised and recent funding activity. Limited public visibility and press coverage relative to peers.
Dimension breakdown
Verified signal
Attention (reach, not merit)
DEPLOY Intelligence scores are computed from verified registry data: confirmed deployments, disclosed funding rounds, regulatory filings, active job listings, video viewership, and press coverage. Confidence ratings reflect data availability. Scores update nightly.
DEPLOY Indices — verified vs claimed
Last computed: Nov 6, 2026