Solar-powered data centers in orbit — running NVIDIA GPUs in space
Starcloud (formerly Lumen Orbit) is a Redmond, Washington startup building solar-powered data centers in orbit, aiming to run AI compute on satellites where continuous solar energy and radiative cooling into the vacuum of space offer near-limitless power and passive cooling. Founded in January 2024 by Philip Johnston (ex-McKinsey), Adi Oltean (ex-SpaceX, Microsoft Azure) and Ezra Feilden (ex-Airbus Defence and Space), the Y Combinator (S24) company launched Starcloud-1 in November 2025 — the first NVIDIA H100 GPU operated in orbit, which it says trained an LLM and ran a version of Google's Gemini in space. Its $170M Series A (March 2026), co-led by Benchmark and EQT Ventures, valued the company at $1.1B and made it the fastest company in YC history to reach unicorn status. The follow-on Starcloud-2 mission will fly an NVIDIA Blackwell GPU cluster with payloads from AWS, Google Cloud, NVIDIA and Crusoe.
Space / Defense📍 Redmond, WAFounded 2024
Current Valuation
$1.1B
as of 2026-Q1
UNICORN
QL Price
$2.3B
0% vs last round
QuantLogix's current estimate for Starcloud, published 2026-10-20 — in line with the last disclosed round of $2.3B (2026-08).
Confidence
medium
Basis
secondary led
What backs this price
Last disclosed round
$2.3B
2026-08
weight 0.86
Secondary market print
$2.3B
2026-06-27
weight 0.72
How this price has held up
No round has priced for Starcloud since QuantLogix began publishing a price for it, so there is nothing to grade yet. The claim above is on the record from 2026-10-20 and will be graded against the next priced round. See the full accuracy record →
Which publicly-traded funds already hold it, what $10,000 buys, and whether any route is open to you.
Cite this price as QuantLogix QL Price, Starcloud, 2026-10-20 (1b7cbd816f17e99c).
The id pins this exact claim, so a citation stays checkable after the price moves.
Model estimate for research — not a quote, target price, or investment advice.
IPO Outlookprivate
Is Starcloud going public?
No. Starcloud is private and has not filed to go public. There is no S-1 on file.
What is Starcloud's valuation in 2026?
Starcloud is valued at $1.1B as of 2026-Q1, set by its Series A ($170M, Mar 2026). That is the last confirmed mark, not a live price — private shares do not trade continuously.
Has Starcloud filed an S-1?
No public S-1 is on file for Starcloud.
Who are Starcloud's investors?
Starcloud's investors include Benchmark, EQT Ventures, Y Combinator, In-Q-Tel, NFX, FUSE Ventures and 4 more.
How much has Starcloud raised?
Starcloud has raised $200M in total, most recently a Series A of $170M in Mar 2026.
Is Starcloud publicly traded — can you buy Starcloud stock?
No. Starcloud is a private company — its shares are not listed on any exchange and there is no ticker. The routes to exposure are pre-IPO secondary marketplaces and funds (accredited investors), employee tender offers when the company runs one, and public companies with read-through exposure. QuantLogix maps every route it can verify for Starcloud on its Pre-IPO Access Desk.
Answers are derived from the roster record shown on this page — filing status, last round and confirmed marks. Where the record is silent, the answer says so rather than guessing.
Company Profile
CEO
Philip Johnston
Founded
2024
HQ
Redmond, WA
Employees
Undisclosed
Total Raised
$200M
Last Round
Series A — $170M (Mar 2026) · Lead: Benchmark & EQT Ventures
IPO Status
private
Fundraising Status
Series A · $170M · 7 mo ago
privateTotal raised $200M
Secondary Market
Implied price / share
$57.02
Open interest
37
Secondary price return by period
Implied per-share price from private secondary transactions, as of Jun 2026. This is a point estimate, not a quote — the feed carries no bid, ask or spread, and a secondary print is evidence of what someone paid on that date rather than a live market. Compare across every tracked name →
Latest Funding Round
Round
Amount
Date
Lead Investor
Post-Money
Series A
$170M
Mar 2026
Benchmark & EQT Ventures
—
Vertical Intelligence — Defense / Aerospace
No name-verified federal prime awards for Starcloud in the last 36 months on USASpending.gov — revenue may be classified, flow through subcontracts, or be non-US. Absence of a registry match is reported as-is.
Checked usaspending.gov as of 2026-10-20. Re-checked weekly.
Talent Signal
Hiring trend
▶ Hiring steady
0% vs 2026-09
Open roles
8
via careers page
Product-build share
38%
engineering, research, product, design
Trajectory
steady
balanced build + GTM — 38% builders vs 62% go-to-market/G&A — scaling both sides.
Actively hiring with no tracked executive churn.
Open roles by month
Open roles by function
■ product-building ■ go-to-market / G&A
01\\ Electrical Engineer Electrical Engineering · Full Time\\ Redmond, WAApply N12\\ Thermal Engineer Thermal Engineering · Full Time\\ Redmond, WAApply Now →14\\ Software Engineer Software Engineering · Full Time\\ Redmond, WAApply Now →Skip to main contentJoin Our Talent Network13\\ Recruiter Human Resources · Full Time\\ Redmond, WAApply Now →
Counted from Starcloud's live job board as of 2026-10-16; role functions classified from posting titles. Open-role counts are an activity signal, not headcount. Refreshed monthly.
Founders & Key People
Philip JohnstonAdi OlteanEzra Feilden
Investors
Benchmark · EQT Ventures · Y Combinator · In-Q-Tel · NFX · FUSE Ventures · Soma Capital · Adjacent · 776 Ventures · Manhattan West
Products
Starcloud-1 (first NVIDIA H100 GPU in orbit, launched Nov 2025)
Private-company numbers are not real-time. Reflects publicly disclosed valuations from press releases, news reports, and tender offers as of 2026-Q1. Refreshed quarterly.