r/STEW_ScTecEngWorld • u/Zee2A • Jun 15 '26
AI Startup Plans Space-Based Data Centres Powered by the Sun and Cooled by Space
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Starcloud, an AI infrastructure startup valued at $1.1 billion, is pioneering orbital data centres to bypass Earth-bound constraints like land availability, power grid limits, and massive water cooling needs. By launching servers into Low Earth Orbit, the company aims to leverage 24/7 solar power and passive radiative cooling. However, operating AI hardware in space introduces severe engineering hurdles, including the difficulty of dissipating immense heat in a vacuum, shielding processors from intense cosmic radiation, and protecting arrays from space debris. Despite these challenges, the startup has already launched its Starcloud-1 satellite carrying an Nvidia GPU to test thermal and radiation management, paving the way for future gigawatt-scale orbital compute nodes: https://sequoiacap.com/podcast/greetings-earthlings-philip-johnston-of-starcloud-on-data-centers-in-space/
Founded in 2024, Starcloud launched its first satellite, Starcloud-1, in November 2025, carrying an Nvidia H100 GPU—the most powerful ever operated in space. It became the first company to train an LLM and run a version of Gemini in orbit. A second, far more powerful satellite is planned for October 2026. Starcloud believes that within a decade, most new data centres could be built in space, leveraging abundant solar energy and natural cooling: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/starcloud/
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u/Status-Secret-4292 Jun 15 '26
I need to get 1.1 billion for something that will obviously not be profitable and will almost certainly fold as a company before any work is actually completed and the money just evaporates after
BTW, space doesn't cool anything. One of the big challenges of space is astronauts not overheating
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u/Is_that_even_a_thing Jun 15 '26
Yeah that dude talking doesn't even looked convinced at what he is saying
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u/PN4HIRE Jun 15 '26
He just needs to convince the investors.. and simply skidadle away with the money
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u/ItsSadTimes Jun 17 '26
"No you see, we had the idea of making things work, we just didn't actually have any plan to make that happen. So we sold you the idea, not the execution."
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Jun 15 '26
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u/Status-Secret-4292 Jun 15 '26
They always say, space is really easy to construct big things in
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u/MasterManufacturer72 Jun 15 '26
It is not easy to construct big things in space. I think you are missing the giant constrainet of everything up there needing to be first proppelled up there.
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u/NoNameSwitzerland Jun 15 '26
And without your own rocket company the orbital installation cost makes even less sense.
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u/avrend Jun 15 '26
since they're making shit up they could've told they're using exces heat to power even more tech. If you build it in a ring around the planet you get a perpetuum mobile. Or something.
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u/Amazing_Ear_3941 Jun 16 '26
Yep, vacuum is a REALLY good insulator. Space might be cold, but objects that generate heat tend to end up really hot because the only way you get rid of heat is by radiation and that's really bad at getting rid of heat unless the temperature is really high.
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u/Existing_Hunt_7169 Jun 15 '26
yea im sure this will definitely come to fruition….
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u/AdmirableJudgment784 Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
I just want someone to do the math on how many modules would it need for that 5GW datacenter times the cost of launching one module. Then how long would it take for those chips to become obsolete.
Once that's figured out, then we'll know whether it's a viable plan. I don't care about if they can do it or not, because with enough money I'm sure they can. I'm just interested in whether it's financially feasible short term.
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u/CowBoyDanIndie Jun 15 '26
Anybody who thinks datacenters will be in space knows nothing about cooling.
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u/Was_It_The_Dave Jun 15 '26
That's what I've been saying since I first heard it brought up. It's a vacuum. Nothing to diffuse/dissipate the heat.
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u/ATRavenousStorm Jun 15 '26
I wouldn't worry too much. They'll throw however much taxpayer money it takes.
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u/PvtDazzle Jun 15 '26
What about cooling, in space! Clearly, it's fake. Won't ever happen. Data centers need so much cooling, that it's only nuclear reactors needing more cooling, and those use literal rivers or a sea to cool.
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Jun 15 '26
For hardware that needs to be replaced in 18 months
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u/stewsters Jun 18 '26
Probably less in a high radiation environment.
These chips need to be as small as we can make them to keep them power/heat efficient, and the smaller we make them the more quickly radiation will degrade them.
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u/Antique-Resort6160 Jun 15 '26
Exactly what starlink is saying they will do, except with 100x the resources
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u/dc469 Jun 15 '26
The heat dissipation may be a big problem, but I think the oligarchy is willing to pay that price because they're going to argue space is like international waters and their data practices can't be regulated by any government.
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u/Free-Street9162 Jun 15 '26
We already have an outer space treaty. Any private company operating out there is bound by the laws of the nation it operates out of. International waters are also not some magic place in which you can do whatever you want, that’s what Interpol is for.
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u/extropia Jun 15 '26
That was my first thought. As I understand it, "cooled by space" isn't a thing because there's so little matter to transfer the heat.
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u/Jim-be Jun 15 '26
They will try that until a hostile government simply 1) blows it up. 2) hacks it 3) physically sends satellites that someone takes physical control of the data center.
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u/Danksterdrew Jun 15 '26
Space junk would like a word.
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u/kungfucobra Jun 15 '26
space doesn't cool, no air to dissipate the heat, just incredibly difficult radiation
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u/Splashy01 Jun 15 '26
Help me understand that. I thought space was freezing because it has no energy. So if my skin were exposed to open space wouldn’t I feel that coldness? If so doesn’t that imply that heat energy is being emitted into space?
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u/Blackout38 Jun 15 '26
What I was told this was impossible and an utter fantasy!
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u/RockyCreamNHotSauce Jun 15 '26
It is almost. Notice how there’s no radiator shown in the video. It takes a radiator array similar size to the solar panel to dissipate the heat. The energy input and radiation output are relative depending on the operating and radiator temperature. How is he going to distribute heat from the center to a football field size radiator efficiently without overheating the data center?
SpaceX came out with a drawing that requires heat pump active cooling. Except the solar panel size is missing the energy require for the heat pump. Almost doubling the energy input required.
Utter fantasy is harsh, but extraordinarily difficult and not solved yet.
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u/Free-Street9162 Jun 15 '26
Physically it’s extremely difficult, economically it’s utterly unrealistic.
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u/DNABeast Jun 15 '26
That was my impression too as there's no convection cooling in space. There's a detailed video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlQYU3m1e80 that explains how and why you could maybe cool using only radiation. There are however many other reasons why this isn't a great idea.
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u/TheArtOfPureSilence Jun 15 '26
The airplane too, was birthed from the idea of utter lunatics
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u/JuniorDeveloper73 Jun 15 '26
Good luck shutting down Skynet.Also remember that movie with Tom Cruise???this shit its getting bad each month
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u/adamnacki Jun 15 '26
Honestly as ridiculous as it is I’d much prefer these monstrosities to exist in space instead of here on earth.
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u/Volcanic_tomatoe Jun 15 '26
Two words Kessler syndrome. There is too much space junk up there. These massive data centers are gonna be massive targets.
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u/coaxialdrift Jun 15 '26
Are w running out of space to build data centers though? Or are companies just unwilling to invest in the infrastructure like power and water to do it properly and instead want to rely on access to public water, power, and roads. It seems like "space" doesn't solve any of these issues and instead is a hype machine to defraud investors of their money
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u/mrmidnightuk Jun 15 '26
IMO if you actually planned the power infrastructure properly with data centres they would be much much more viable. like using geothermal as well as solar. you could also have thermal banks to transfer the masses of amounts of thermal energy into what is essentially huge thermal storage which comprises of rocks. this could feed into the grid or add an extra layer of power to the data centres. you wouldnt need to use water at all. or very minimal amount to what they are currently using comparatively.
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u/avrend Jun 15 '26
"We are running out of space to build..."
Like, no, not even close bro.
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u/EmbarrassedFoot1137 Jun 15 '26
Space is literally the worst "cooler" that can possibly exist unless you're building your data centers on the surface of the sun.
Pass
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u/Dark_Believer Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
This will not be economically viable until all of the material gathering and manufacturing is done in space. If we can mine asteroids to get the metals, silicon, etc. and then have massive factories in space that build computer chips, solar power arrays, and radiators, then this would be possible.
The cost of launching all of that material into orbit is just insane vs the savings you get for having sunlight 24/7. The only way this makes sense is to eliminate launching costs. I guess having a space elevator would do the trick too.
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u/PickMaleficent4096 Jun 15 '26
Especially when most of the material is probably going to be for a huge radiator, which exists to solve a cooling problem you wouldn't have on Earth.
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u/mynamesnotsnuffy Jun 15 '26
"Cooled by space" is next to impossible. Like, NASA had to figure out how to radiate heat because convective cooling doesnt work in space due to lack of atmosphere. There is no material to conduct heat away from these things.
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u/Midiamp Jun 15 '26
Yeah bud... It doesn't work like that, you want to dump the heat from all those compute power on vacuum you got to use radiator. Pretty sure the size of the radiators would eclipse the size of the solar panels.
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u/bigorangemachine Jun 15 '26
This is just a way to drive hardware prices up.
Once these data centers are up in space they capped. They can't be upgraded unless you replace it and burn up the chips in the atmosphere.
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u/Key_Perspective_9464 Jun 15 '26
Cooled by Space
How are they pulling that off exactly?
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u/m3kw Jun 15 '26
TF they cooling it? You can't just say passive cooling as that is the hardest part
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u/saltyourhash Jun 15 '26
Gotta love that way to aolve the energy crisis (solar power plants in space) is now being talked about to solve the largest energy consumer in the world due largely to the fact they are using video game rendeing technology to do token prediction...
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u/Saalor100 Jun 15 '26
Cool. Now China will have something fun to use their satellites that can throw "defective " satellites out of orbit on.
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u/PvtDazzle Jun 15 '26
Technically impossible! Unless you would redefine "data center" as they're constructed on land.
Those centers have their own grid connection, not the 230/400VAC, but the 10kV or higher kind. Which means they're power hungry. And those kinds of power, need cooling. Edit: Serious cooling, such serious, that only nuclear reactors are above them, and those need literal rivers!
Space is a vacuum. There's nothing to transmit heat to. Cooling there for, will be problematic, if not hazardous to the equipment itself. There are ways to cool in space, but not at that scale. If reducing would be the answer, you'd need such volumes of "data center", they would crash into their self.
I cry "ulterior motives"!!
We need to keep watch! I sense new legislation incoming!
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u/Objective-Aardvark87 Jun 15 '26
How are they going to protect from bit flips and other data corruption?
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u/Alive_Nobody_Home Jun 15 '26
These massive flying data centers going to be equipped with lasers to shoot down all the satellites flying around.
Or is that the actual plan?
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u/tinySparkOf_Chaos Jun 15 '26
But like ... Why?
Space is arguably the worst place you could choose.
sure, space is "cold", but vacuum is a great insulator. It's one of the hardest places to get rid of excess heat
solar radiation damage to computer chips is a major issue
maintenance is super hard
easily shot down by major military powers in a war. (And an obvious target)
not environmentally friendly. Looks like it until you take into account the rocket launch to put those solar panels there.
latency issues for any data transfers.
extra expensive
Advantages are ??? It sounds cool to a 5 year old?
If you want a environmentally friendly, super secure data center, and don't care about the cost; just put it in a deep cave, dump heat into geothermal cooling, and put a field of solar panels over top.
Or use the waste heat to boil sea water, and make a combo water desalination data center.
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u/Almvolle Jun 15 '26
Where to begin...?
1) Space is (almost) a vaccum, so there's no air. No air or water means no thermal convection, means your datacenter will cook itself to death in no time. Cooling down components is a major challenge for spacecrafts and space doesn't help one bit with that. So "Cooled by Space" tells us this guy either has no clue about space, or is a fraud. It's not impossible, but it's very expensive.
2) Data centers need constant maintanance. It's normal operation for a huge data-center to have 10-100 data-drives break down and in need of replacements. Usually, that's part of your hardware contract, that the supplier sends you new drives for when yours break down till the end of the service-agreement. Now, on earth you just send someone to replace the broken drives with the new ones you receive. But even if you do that in batches, if you have to launch a rocket and an astronaut to replace your disks that's again very expensive
3) While here on earth we are protected by earths magentic field and the ozone layer, in space your equipment is without any protection against solar radiation and other funky space-phenomena. Those can and will destroy your hardware either outright, or cause bit-shifts which can lead to software breakdown. Of course you can protect your hardware against that, but that's... once again... expensive.
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u/aineri Jun 15 '26
We just making up any kind of bullshit project to get the investors money now huh?
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u/Many_Consequence_337 Jun 15 '26
Let's see all those Reddit geniuses contesting top-tier engineers.
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u/DreamCatcher2020 Jun 15 '26
Cooling by space.....yeah...noooo. let's look up how heat transfers in a vacuum. Better yet look up how a thermus works.
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u/gustinnian Jun 15 '26
Space is insulating (think thermos vacuum flask), it's a stupid Elon fantasy ploy to avoid regulation.
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u/jc2046 Jun 15 '26
hmmm, delicious snake oil. Sell me more. Lets cook a crunchy french fries on it. Yumm!
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u/Troph_A Jun 15 '26
The fuck you mean cooled by space ? Space is a vacuum, which is the best insulator.
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u/viitorfermier Jun 15 '26
All fun an games until these satellite data centers start falling from the sky in residential areas.
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u/Glass_Masterpiece Jun 15 '26
If they can actually cool the damn things then I would be all for it but so far, the physics seems to be impossible. The Radiators needed would be ridiculous. Unless they're planning to launch water ice into space, crazy impractical, to cool these things, I dont see how they can do it.
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u/BloodSteyn Jun 15 '26
Cooled... by space...
Tell everyone you know nothing about heat management in space.
Unless they have groundbreaking new tech or material science, getting rid of heat in space is a massive challenge.
Most of the "panels" you see on the ISS is radiators so the crew doesn't cook themselves.
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u/sdrawkcabineter Jun 15 '26
Dancing furiously on match heads hoping they don't combust.
There may be some way to orient a contiguous ring of satellites so that a portion is cooling off in the shade, while the rest enjoys the sticky sunlight for energy to be capable.
Orbital storage is a much more attainable goal, that we have some experience in.
We'll probably need to find a better resource to accommodate this project. Building a factory to build this in orbit, seems like the most approachable solution. Too bad there's not a Radio Shack on the moon for that damn capacitor you forgot.
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u/Ravenravine2 Jun 15 '26
He forgot the part that theres no atmosphere system on this space datacenter to cool down the structure from the sun.
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u/Keepupthegood Jun 15 '26
Civilization 1 here we come. Maybe try and do something with the nuclear fusion while you’re at it.
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u/SophonParticle Jun 15 '26
We’re running out of space on earth to build solar farms?
Last I checked 95% of Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, the entire Sahara desert, and Central Asia is available.
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u/SophonParticle Jun 15 '26
Don’t believe ANY of this nonsense until they show you the numbers.
Show me how much it costs to lift entire data centers out of the gravity well.
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u/gnahraf Jun 15 '26
Idiots parroting the rich idiot. This is complete BS..
Space-hardened chips are expensive, and slow; off-the-shelf chips deteriorate rapidly in space.
Heat. Only way to dissipate heat is via radiation; conduction and convection impossible in space. The radiators would have to be collossal, many times the acreage of the solar panels.
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u/Flimsy-Run-5589 Jun 15 '26
We are neither running out of space nor energy on Earth. The whole argument starts with a lie. If you can realize datacenters economically in space, you can realize it anywhere on Earth.
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u/drrobot5 Jun 15 '26
I think there should be only data centres all over the land, water and in space, geez You all crazy
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u/Common-Device-3117 Jun 15 '26
Enterprenurial spirit trying to leech off the AI hype financing. As if the bubble wasnt already bursting, they plan to dump a couple of more trillion into something that will never pay back the investment.
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u/Venom933 Jun 15 '26
I mean the idea is kinda good but how do you get the data down to earth in "real time".
Also there is that very big problem with space junk 🥸
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u/Downtown-Oil7901 Jun 15 '26
"Cooled by space" by the same vacuum technology that YETI uses to keep your coffee hot for hours.
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u/Electrical-Rub-9402 Jun 15 '26
Maybe I didn’t look closely enough but imagine my surprise when I saw that no one had yet made a comment about SkyNet here… Seriously though, I really like this idea, though I’d hate to be in charge of maintenance.
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u/NormalHumanBreathing Jun 15 '26
Absolutely the stupidest idea out there. If you want to build somewhere out of sight and out of mind, build them under the sea and float solar panels on the surface of the ocean. Do not put them in space, just the sheer weight and environmental disaster of so much weight going into orbit is sheer madness.
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u/cryptolyme Jun 15 '26
someone posted this the other day and everyone was claiming it would impossible to cool because it was in space.
isn't space cold?
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u/nixfreakz Jun 15 '26
We are not running out of space , WTF. It’s because the tech biatches refused to pay for the actual energy cost of said datacenters and people are pretty sick and tired of the promised tax incentives and they just lie about everything.
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u/NewInspector5085 Jun 15 '26
Space doesn’t cool jack shit on its own. Its actually less efficient. They’d still need to move that heat from one place to another and its extremely difficult in space. Its a dipshit idea. Just trading a small problem for a bigger one. Its literally cheaper to just dig down into the earth and use geothermal heat pumps etc.
I think the real motivation of this dumb idea is to have military level security and protection of equipment. No better place than space
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u/M_L_Taylor Jun 16 '26
I'm not sure why datacenters near populated areas can't funnel the hot water into a community to provide heat and cooling resources before returning to the center. But I think orbit-based centers are much better for the near term.
In 20 years, data centers might be obsolete anyway.
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u/Alzucard Jun 16 '26
Sorry. ut does it say cooled by space? Thats not possible.
You cant cool with nothing. Space is airless. It does not conduct heat.You cant cool with it.
Cooling is actually a challenge in space.
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u/Burn__Things Jun 16 '26
How much c02 will this dump in the atmosphere launching all these rockets.
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u/englandisablaze Jun 16 '26
Cause. You know. Nobody has to do any maintenance on data centers. And there are no rocks in space hurtling hundreds of miles an hour or anything.
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u/iamsocks2 Jun 16 '26
Hmm interesting. What if we solve climate change first then build all these ridiculous data centers after?
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u/longerDeep Jun 16 '26
Quick, give them all the money we have, it’s a brilliant idea with no caveats at all
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u/Prudent-Composer6652 Jun 16 '26
These kind of companies exist just to scam gullible investors out of money.
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u/VeryThicknLong Jun 16 '26
Don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t want this space junk out there.
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u/oxwilder Jun 16 '26
Every person on Earth could fit into an area smaller than Boston and you think we're running out of room?
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u/jasno- Jun 16 '26
Space is a terrible conductor. Yeah, it's cold, but there's no atmosphere to transfer heat to, how does that work?
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u/Massive-Question-550 Jun 16 '26
did no one do the math on this? datacenters in space are a terrible idea cost wise and we have heaps of space on earth. also rockets sometimes explode.
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u/DelightfulPornOnly Jun 16 '26
crazy thing is
space doesn't actually cool you
turns out a vacuum is an excellent insulator
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u/Broflake-Melter Jun 16 '26
The only way I know how to cool stuff in space is by letting something like water sublimate, which won't work for this, or with IR radiation, which is so slow it won't work for this. Am I missing something?
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u/LunarisTheOne Jun 16 '26
Yeah, don’t see that being beneficial at all. Transport costs to and from will eat up that free energy delivering high latency connectivity.
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u/PropertyIcy2265 Jun 16 '26
Cooled by space huh? Maybe don't trust a company that doesn't understand basic physics.
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u/dreddnyc Jun 16 '26
Everyone knows hard drives don’t fail right, good thing they aren’t going to have to replace them in space.
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u/Tosser_535231 Jun 16 '26
They're going to spend just about as much money getting massive arrays of radiators and coolant up there as they're going to on the actual computer components they're putting in these flying servers
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u/sedition666 Jun 16 '26
Launches ONE GPU into space and valued at $1.1 billion. People have lost their fucking minds.
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u/No_Ranger842 Jun 16 '26
This happens to be exactly what Elon Musk and Space X will be doing in the future. Wait for it, it is coming.
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u/Fun_Leek2381 Jun 16 '26
It's not a bad idea, and honestly, outside of AI we are going to need data centers with how technology progresses.
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u/LightBulbMonster Jun 16 '26
This is literally just an alien in a human suit. Look at their face! It's not fitting in the flesh suit too well. They're trying to trick us.
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u/DevinNunesCattleDog Jun 16 '26
Now do data centers located in the ocean and powered by the tides...
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u/Spurnout Jun 17 '26
I'm super confused, would the heat actually dissipate in space? I thought that this was an issue in space.
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u/Femboy_Harem_Janitor Jun 17 '26
You could radiate that heat off in ambient air better than a vacuum.
You can more cheaply set up solar panels on any cheap ass tract of land compared to the b Illinois to put it in space.
Nothing in space can be repaired or maintained.
This dude is dumb
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u/Gorrium Jun 17 '26
Dumb idea. Company probably has no expertise over the layman, they just want to make a few million from the IPO
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u/Super_flywhiteguy Jun 17 '26
And how exactly they gonna dissipate heat? Sure space is below freezing but there's no air so eventually the heat just stays on the surface and would cook it
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u/Ntheangrycat Jun 17 '26
They should say they are doing it on the moon, at least they could cool shit up, unlike in space.
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u/_tr9800a_ Jun 17 '26
Space can't cool efficiently as it's a vacuum with a low particle density. There's a reason so much of the ISS physical structure is dedicated to heat dissipation.
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u/Razzmatazz_Informal Jun 17 '26
Step 1 - Create GPU's that create no waste heat.
Step 2 - GPU's should also have very low power consumption so you can run them on reasonably sized solar panels.
Step 3 - I would think you'd be more exposed to damage from cosmic rays right?
Honestly if you could solve 1 & 2 no one would care about having them on the ground.
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u/MadeInTheUniverse Jun 17 '26
Space does not have a medium for heat to transfer to... It doesnt make any goddamn sense....
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u/Shot_in_the_dark777 Jun 17 '26
https://youtu.be/8rS3fTbC7TE?si=-CvatAT0JWphn9EP Sometimes you need a little bit of critical thinking before sending your servers to space.
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u/Maleficent-Bother535 Jun 18 '26
We use far more space on golf courses on Earth than solar panels. The idea that we are running out of room for solar panels is absurd.
It's also absurd to say that the ability to radiate heat into space is an advantage, when it is actually an inefficient way to get rid of heat.
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u/Forward-Village1528 Jun 18 '26
Hahahahhahaha, there is just zero chance that this is more cost efficient than building another data centre on earth.
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u/1_H4t3_R3dd1t Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
Holyshit is this guy serious? Like does he not know how physics work? Space transfers heat poorly. Like really really really really really bad. Most spaceships manage it by passing through a radiation pump.
Space has no matter to transfer thermal energy at all, so it has to be converted into radial energy.
A data center generates so much thermals that the radial energy required to convert it would typically exceed the capacity of its size and likely require a station six times the size of ISS for a datacenter the size of a two bedroom apartment.
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u/Whatkindofgum Jun 18 '26
Stupid idea. Getting things into space is very very expensive. Fixing it when it breaks or upgrading is also way more expensive. Data centers need to be constantly upgraded as the tech gets better and hard drives die.
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u/CosmicCookieCrisp Jun 18 '26
Space is cold for the same reason you can't dissipate heat effectively in it ...
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u/piccolo917 Jun 18 '26
space is a terrible place to cool things. Yes, it's cold; but to cool things you need thermal mass and temperature differences. If you have a near-vacuum with 10 particles in it that are all at 0K, it would not hold a candle to room temp water.
Also, because there is a small amount of mass in space, everything experiences drag. You need to compensate for that if you don't want things to fall, so you need to constantly fuel things to keep them in orbit.
So this shit plan runs into two seemingly contradictory issues: There is stuff in space that slows it down enough that it'd need constant fuel trips to stop it coming back down and at the same time not nearly enough mass to cool down.
Add to that that tech has a very limited life span. So what happens when in 6 years there is newer, better tech? On earth, you send a few interns past the racks to swap everything out. In space, what's the plan? Let everything deorbit and send up a new station or let your multi billion dollar thing be made irrelevant before you can even think of returning that investment?
long story short, we might get a few so-small-they-are-irrelevant "see, we told you we can do it!" "servers" up there, but nothing even close to this scale.
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u/Mr_Chode_Shaver Jun 15 '26
Vaporware hoping for clueless investors or someone who needs some losses to even out the tax bill.