Scooter Founder Raises $5M to Build Data Center in Space

SpaceX's successes in the space industry have completely transformed the venture capital market. Now even entrepreneurs without experience in the space sector can attract investment for large projects. Orbital, a startup founded by Euwyn Poon, creator of the Spin electric scooter service, has secured $5 million in seed funding from a16z and other investors. The company's goal is to launch data centers in orbit for AI computations once the Starship rocket begins regular flights. Techcrunch.com reports .

Euwyn Poon previously sold Spin to Ford and gained experience in the automotive industry. His new project aims to meet the huge demand for AI power on Earth through space. Solar energy in orbit is unlimited and environmental restrictions are virtually absent, but the main problem remains the high cost of delivering payloads to space. The Orbital team believes that SpaceX's Starship project will drastically reduce transportation costs.

Currently based in Los Angeles and comprising former employees of Amazon LEO, SpaceX, and Northrop Grumman, the team is preparing for a demo flight. As part of this test, an NVIDIA Blackwell chip will be installed on a partner satellite to test radiation protection and thermal management systems developed by Orbital. By 2028, the company plans to launch its first data processing hardware equipped with NVIDIA Space-1 Vera Rubin class GPUs.

Orbital's long-term plan is to create a network of 10,000 satellites. Each device will have a capacity of 100 kW, providing gigawatts of computing power in total. Competition is also intensifying in this area: Starcloud already has its own GPUs in orbit, and Blue Origin, led by Jeff Bezos, has announced plans to build data centers in space using the New Glenn rocket. According to Poon, the demand for AI is so high that there will be enough room for all participants in this market.