Aug 05, 2026

Building the First Data Centers in Space

Philip Johnston, co-founder and CEO of StarCloud, discusses their pioneering efforts to build data centers in space to address AI's energy demands and terrestrial constraints. He details StarCloud-1's groundbreaking mission, which launched an Nvidia H100 GPU into orbit, and the engineering challenges overcome, such as thermal management and radiation hardening. The conversation covers their ambitious plan for a 88,000-satellite constellation, the shift in investor sentiment towards hard tech, and key advice for deep tech founders.

Mar 17, 2026

Greetings, Earthlings: Philip Johnston of Starcloud on Data Centers in Space

Philip Johnston of Starcloud argues that space will become the primary location for AI compute within a decade. He explains how plummeting launch costs, superior solar energy economics in orbit, and the physics of heat dissipation will soon make space-based data centers cheaper and more scalable than their terrestrial counterparts, predicting a future where nearly a trillion dollars in annual CapEx shifts to space.