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▶ 20:06 · $RKLB · $STOKE-SPACE · Rocket Lab Neutron rocket adding to launch capacity for space infrastructure
episode briefing
Y Combinator

100 VCs Said No. Now They're Building Data Centers in Space

2026-08-05 · 9 company · 11 thematic
sentiment
5 bull0 bear4 neu
speakers
philip johnston

Co-founder and CEO of Star Cloud, building data centers in space. Led the first deployment (Star Cloud 1) with five Nvidia GPUs including an H100, achieving first model training in space. Filed with SEC for 88,000 satellite constellation delivering 20GW compute capacity.

quote
“There's also a whole bunch of other launch vehicles coming online. Stoke space has the Nova rocket. Um Rocket Lab has Neutron. Blue Glen uh Blue Origin has new Glenn.”
—philip johnston
now playing · $RKLB · $STOKE-SPACE
$STARCLOUDbullish· high· posphilip johnston
StarCloud targets 20GW+ orbital compute constellation as Starship slashes launch costs
Terrestrial data centers face insurmountable energy, water, and regulatory constraints; space-based solar provides unlimited power at $500/kg launch break-even (vs $50/kg for spac…
$SPCX···bullish· highphilip johnston
Starship gigafactories targeting 3 ships/day will unlock 1000x launch capacity, enabling orbital data centers
Starship program building two gigafactories for 3 ships/day production; reusability yields 1000x launch capacity within 3-4 years. Launch cost trending down rapidly toward $500/kg…
$ASTROFORGEneutral· lowphilip johnston
AstroForge pursuing asteroid mining as alternative space industrialization
AstroForge (a YC company) represents the asteroid mining approach to space industrialization, which StarCloud evaluated but rejected due to expensive re-entry requirements compare…
$RKLB···neutral· lowphilip johnston
Rocket Lab Neutron rocket adding to launch capacity for space infrastructure
Neutron rocket from Rocket Lab is one of several new launch vehicles (alongside Starship, New Glenn, Nova) that will increase launch capacity and competition, supporting the space…
$STOKE-SPACEneutral· lowphilip johnston
Stoke Space Nova rocket contributing to launch capacity growth
Nova rocket from Stoke Space is another upcoming fully reusable launch vehicle that will increase competition and capacity for space infrastructure launches.
$BLUE-ORIGINneutral· lowphilip johnston
Blue Origin New Glenn rocket expanding heavy launch options
New Glenn adds to the growing heavy-lift launch capacity that will enable large-scale space infrastructure deployment including data centers.
$NVDA···bullish· highphilip johnston
Nvidia co-designing space-qualified 'Reuben' GPU using StarCloud's unique orbital radiation data
StarCloud is the only entity with operational data on H100/B200/H200 behavior in space radiation environment (tested at Brookhaven and Knoxville cyclotron). Nvidia leveraging this…
$AMZN···bullish· mediumphilip johnston
AWS partnering with StarCloud to fly Outpost hardware for military edge compute
AWS will launch its Outpost on-premises server blades on StarCloud 2 to provide local EC2 instances for military customers, validating the orbital edge computing model and creatin…
$BENCHMARKbullish· high· posphilip johnston
Benchmark leads $170M StarCloud bet on elite SpaceX/hyperscaler engineering team despite SpaceX conflict
Partner Chetan Puttagunta invested after deep diligence on engineering team (half ex-SpaceX, half ex-hyperscalers) despite SpaceX's competing space data center project creating co…