Inside Starcloud’s $2B Space Factory
Oct 31, 2026 · 1:09:34
Molly O'Shea tours Starcloud's Redmond, Washington HQ with CEO Philip Johnston, who argues that below $500-per-kilo launch costs, space-based AI data centers beat terrestrial ones. Starcloud went founding-to-orbit in 21 months, launched the first Nvidia H100 in space for about $2.5 million versus a $75-100 million quote, and Starcloud 2 launches in January with 100x the power. Co-founders Ezra Feilden and Adi Oltean explain the rescued secondhand vibe table, in-house radiators and cooling, and chip burn-in against radiation. He covers edge inference for government imagery, an 88,000-satellite constellation totaling 10 terawatts (20x the US grid), and the $450M raised. He predicts SpaceX will buy Tesla and top $100 trillion, plus a Fermi Explorer mission reaching Alpha Centauri in 80,000 years.
