Orbital has emerged with a $5 million seed round to develop AI data centers in space, starting with a planned test mission in 2027. The startup came out of Andreessen Horowitz’s Speedrun accelerator in May and is led by Euwyn Poon, the former founder of e-scooter company Spin.
Orbital said in its official announcement that it is building AI data centers in low Earth orbit using solar power and radiative cooling. The company plans to open Factory-1, its Los Angeles research and development facility, as it works toward its first test mission.
Orbital Bets On Space-Based AI Compute
The company’s pitch is tied to rising demand for AI compute and the limits of building data centers on Earth. Orbital argues that space could offer access to solar power and cooling conditions that are difficult to match on the ground.
The current challenge is launch cost. Poon told TechCrunch that Falcon 9 launch pricing makes the business case difficult today, and that Orbital will reach full scale when SpaceX’s Starship becomes available for regular commercial launches.
Orbital plans to run AI inference workloads rather than train large models in space. The company is working toward a demo flight that will place an Nvidia Blackwell chip on a partner satellite to test radiation shielding and thermal management.
First Data-Processing Spacecraft Planned For 2028
Orbital hopes to launch its first data-processing spacecraft in 2028 using Nvidia’s Space-1 Vera Rubin-class GPUs. From there, it plans to generate revenue by running smaller inference workloads as each satellite is launched.
The company’s long-term goal is to deploy 10,000 satellites that together provide one gigawatt of computing power. Each satellite would provide about 100 kilowatts of power.
Orbital’s team has about a dozen employees in Los Angeles, with experience from Amazon LEO, SpaceX, and Northrop Grumman. Investors in the round include Basis Set, Human Element, Wayfinder, Antler, Anti Fund, Ascent, Rubik, Zero Knowledge Ventures, LYVC, Feld Ventures, New Legacy, FNDR, UpHonest, and Asterisk.
Space Data Center Race Grows
Orbital is one of several startups trying to move AI compute into orbit. Starcloud already has a GPU in space and plans to launch more hardware before building a larger constellation.
Other companies are taking different routes. Cowboy Space Company, another a16z-backed startup, has decided to build its own rockets, while Blue Origin has announced plans to launch data centers into space using its New Glenn vehicle.
Poon previously founded Spin in 2017 and sold it to Ford a year later. Andreessen Horowitz partner Andrew Chen told TechCrunch that Poon’s experience building a scooter company across 100 cities showed he could manage a complex infrastructure business.
Featured image credits: Magnific.com
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