Read time: 3 minutes 59 seconds
Good Morning! Welcome to our 1,648+ new readers. Space has three things Earth doesn't: uninterrupted sunlight, a natural vacuum for cooling, and no planning permission. Some companies are betting that this makes them a perfect location for datacenters - let’s dive in!
🧭 DEEP DIVE
Building space Datacentres is it luna(r)cy?
TL;DR
It might not be rational. But it might be physically possible.
The Challenge
AI is consuming electricity faster than the grid can grow. Data centres consumed 4.4% of US electricity in 2024 and that share is projected to more than double by 2030. Meta alone has announced plans for a 5 GW campus, enough to power a mid-sized city.
Building on Earth is getting harder, not easier. Between 30% and 50% of planned US capacity faces delays from permits, grid queues, and community opposition.
A fourth constraint is also emerging: nature system capacity, including water basin availability, land system resilience and local ecological limits. In some markets these are already influencing site viability.
That leaves the industry stuck: demand is skyrocketing (pardon the pun), but growth is bottlenecked by power and permissioning. Every new megawatt needs land, grid connections, water rights, and local consent. The question is whether there is somewhere those constraints are less of a concern.
The Proposed Solution
Some innovators are looking to space as the solution. The argument goes:
Space has three things Earth doesn't: uninterrupted sunlight, a natural vacuum for cooling, and no planning permission. Solar panels in the right orbit are up to 8x more productive than on the ground and generate power almost continuously. Heat radiates passively into space with no water, no chillers, and no electricity bill.
The first use case isn't replacing ground data centres; it's processing satellite data in orbit instead of beaming it all back to Earth. Earth-imaging satellites generate ~10 GB per second. Running AI analysis on wildfires or disaster zones in orbit cuts response time from hours to minutes and eliminates huge transmission costs.
Starcloud estimates 10x lower energy costs than terrestrial facilities once at scale. The marginal cost of power approaches zero, and cooling is free. The catch is the upfront cost of getting hardware up there.
Who is building?
Who? | What they do? | Traction |
|---|---|---|
Orbital GPU compute platforms for AI and satellite data processing | First H100 in space (Nov 2025). Trained first LLM in orbit. $34M raised. Filed for 80,000-satellite constellation. | |
Space solar power + orbital compute ("Galactic Brain" constellation) | $60M raised. DoD funding for space solar. First commercial node Q1 2027 | |
Data storage and edge processing on the Moon and in orbit | First commercial payload to the Moon (Feb 2025). $120M deal with Sidus Space for six lunar spacecraft (2027 to 2030) | |
Orbital data centre nodes on the ISS and future Axiom Station | Two ODC nodes launching to LEO. Prototype deployed to ISS Aug 2025. National security and commercial customers signed | |
Space infrastructure-as-a-service (deploy compute without building spacecraft) | $170M Series C (Jan 2025). Operational satellites already serving customers |
10+
OTHER STARTUPS
$650+Mn
RAISED
3X
COST GAP TO CLOSE
The Economics
Today, it costs roughly 3x more to compute in orbit than on the ground. Aerospace engineer Andrew McCalip's detailed cost model puts a 1 GW orbital system at ~$51B vs ~$16B terrestrial over five years, excluding GPUs (which cost the same either way).
Significant improvement in flight costs is required for this to be come feasible. Launch currently runs $2,500 to $3,600/kg on Space X’s Falcon 9, but satellite manufacturing adds ~$1,000/kg on top. Google's Project Suncatcher analysis estimates the whole equation flips at $200/kg to orbit, roughly an 18x reduction from today.
SpaceX might be the only player with a path to that price point but it feels a long way off. Starship promises ~$93/kg with full reusability, but it hasn't reached operational status yet, and its first three test flights ended in explosions.
Let’s not forget, with rumours of an upcoming IPO, Space X have an incentive to hype up other sources of demand for space flight, even if they may not make sense.
Still to prove?
Cooling at scale is the hardest unsolved engineering problem. There's no air in space, so heat can only escape by radiation, which requires enormous surface area. A gigawatt facility needs panels potentially 4km across. NVIDIA's Jensen Huang has called this the core bottleneck.
Chips in orbit could become obsolete before satellites die. GPU performance roughly doubles every two years, but satellites last five to six. You can't swap a GPU in orbit, so the whole satellite becomes a stranded asset within three years.
A million new satellites could trigger cascading debris collisions. SpaceX has filed to launch 1Mn satellites into orbit Vs their ~14,500 active satellites in orbit today. There are concerns from the scientific community about the potential for collisions - a very expensive mistake if it ever occurred!
Deeper Dive
Keeping to a 3-minute read on this one was tough. Dive deeper into these excellent resources here:
Google Research: Project Suncatcher paper: Full technical feasibility study covering chip radiation testing, satellite formation flight, optical communications, and the $200/kg launch cost threshold.
Andrew McCalip: Orbital vs Terrestrial Cost Calculator: Interactive model with 15 sliders comparing orbital and terrestrial costs from 1 to 100 GW. The most rigorous public economic analysis available we found.
IEEE Spectrum: Can Orbital Data Centers Solve AI's Power Crisis?: The definitive overview of the $51B economics, SpaceX's million-satellite filing, and whether the numbers can ever work.
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Links
Energy & Minerals
⚡ Fission and fusion reach new milestones: Ontario Power Generation has formally submitted the first SMR operating license in an OECD country. [Link]
⚛️ Nuclear for data-centre power skyrocketing Meta signed an agreement with TerraPower for up to eight nuclear plants to power datacenter. Tech giants are moving from renewable PPAs to direct nuclear offtake for credible 24/7 clean power for AI data centres. [Link]
Land
🌾 The US enters its growing season with record-low soil moisture and beef prices already rising. Best proof-of-need moment in years for precision irrigation, soil sensing, and crop insurance tech. [Link]
⚡ Fertiliser prices skyrocket due to Iran war. A third of global seaborne fertiliser trade passes through the Strait of Hormuz. Since the US blockade began, urea prices have jumped from ~$450 to ~$700 per metric ton — right at spring planting season. Agri-input and food inflation plays are live. [Link]
Water
🌡 New species hit the endangered list, including Emperor Penguins and Antarctic Fur Seals. [Link]
🤿 Ocean data just became a lot cheaper Apeiron Labs raised a $9.5M Series A to deploy low-cost autonomous underwater vehicles that sample ocean data at 400m depth. The startup claims to have brought the cost of subsurface ocean data down 100-fold [Link]
Atmosphere
💨 Microsoft paused buying new carbon removal credits, a big blow to the market. Since last year, its strategy has been to purchase more nature-based solution (NBS) credits and fewer CDR ones, especially as the AI arms race continues. [Link]
🇪🇺 Political pressure on carbon pricing is mounting. Czech PM Andrej Babiš urged the European Commission to loosen the EU ETS by granting extra free allowances to energy-intensive industries hit by soaring power and gas prices. [Link]
Deals
🛵 Also, a Palo Alto, CA-based electric mobility solutions provider, raised $200m in Series C funding from Greenoaks Capital, DoorDash, and Prysm Capital.
🏠 Starcloud, a Redmond, WA-based space data center developer, raised$170m in Series A funding from Benchmark, EQT Ventures, 776 Ventures, Adjacent, Fuse Ventures, and other investors
🛰 Xoople, a Tres Cantos, Spain-based geospatial data infrastructure platform, raised $130m in Series B funding from Nazca Capital, Buenavista Equity Partners, Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico e Industrial (CDTI), Endeavor Catalyst, and MCH Private Equity.
🛰 Starfish Space, a Tukwila, WA-based satellite life extension service provider, raised $110m in Series B funding from Activate Capital Partners, Point72 Ventures, Shield Capital, Gaingels, Industrious Ventures, and other investors.
🏭 SmartD Technologies, a Montréal, Canada-based SiC-based motor drive developer, raised $11m in Series A funding from Desjardins Capital, Hammond Power Solutions, Boreal Ventures, Investissement Québec, and SE Ventures.
⚡ Soma Energy, a Vancouver, Canada-based AI-driven energy intelligence platform, raised $7m in Seed funding from Category Ventures, Haystack, Panache Ventures, RRE Ventures, TO VC, and other investors.
🚗 Astranova Mobility, a Gurugram, India-based EV fleet asset management platform, raised $7m in Series A funding from IvyCap Ventures, AdvantEdge Founders, Asian Development Bank, and Trucks Venture Capital.
⚡ Plume, a Paris, France-based AI-powered energy renovation platform, raised $4m in Seed funding from AENU, Better Angle, Collaborative Fund, Kima Ventures, Raise Sherpas, and other investors.
⚡ Nirova, a Boise, ID-based anaerobic digester optimization platform, raised$3m in Seed funding from undisclosed investors.
🌡 Satellites on Fire, a Belgrano, Argentina-based real-time forest fire detection platform, raised $3m in Seed funding from Dalus Capital, Air Capital, Antom, Avesta Fund, Draper Associates, and other investors.
👕 Appcycle, a Hirosaki, Japan-based apple food waste upcycling company, raised an undisclosed amount in Debt funding from Japan Finance Corporation and Mizuho Bank.
⚡ Münch Energie, a Rugendorf, Germany-based sustainable energy solutions developer, raised an undisclosed amount in PF Debt funding from IKB Deutsche Industriebank.
🔋 Kingdom, a Singapore-based battery energy storage systems (BESS) developer, raised an undisclosed amount in PF Debt funding from MUFG Bank.
Exits
♻️ Frontier Waste Solutions, a Dallas, TX-based waste hauling service provider, was acquired by GFL Environmental at an implied valuation of $900m.
⚡ Vibrant Energy, a Hyderabad, India-based renewable energy solutions provider for C&I customers, was acquired by Inox Clean Energy at an implied valuation of $539m.
🏭 RPD Technologies, a Crosby, TX-based process engineering and project development company, was acquired by Abundia Global Impact Group at an implied valuation of $4m.
Funds
Eka Ventures, a London, UK-based venture capital firm, closed $107m for its Fund II with support from British Business Bank, Better Society Capital, and Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation, focusing on consumer health, wellbeing and sustainability.
Events
🇨🇭 HackSummit returns to Lausanne, Switzerland for its 5th anniversary (April 22-23)
🇬🇧 Dan Sherard Smith’s LinkedIn Growth Blueprint for Climate Operators Workshop (April 20-22)
🇺🇸 Super Climate @ SF Climate Week: An exclusive gathering of climate-focused investors. From 6:00-10:30 pm join other GPs and LPs to connect, share perspectives, and collaborate to drive real impact. (April 21)
🇺🇸 Birding & Bagels Bonanza SF Climate Week: Run by Superorganism & Planeteer from 7-9 am at Golden Gate Park. (April 22)
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📩 Written by Ollie. Feel free to send us deals, announcements, or anything else using the link below or via LinkedIn.
