Starcloud, a startup supported by Nvidia, plans to initiate Bitcoin mining operations in orbit. CEO Philip Johnston announced that the company will integrate specialized ASIC hardware into its second spacecraft, Starcloud-2, which is scheduled for launch later this year.
Founded in 2024, Starcloud aims to establish space-based data centers that utilize continuous solar energy and radiative cooling. The company intends to scale these facilities to gigawatt levels, bypassing terrestrial regulatory limitations and infrastructure constraints.
The Starcloud-2 mission represents the second of four planned satellite deployments and serves as the startup's first commercial project. While the official mission documentation focuses on GPU clusters, Johnston highlighted Bitcoin mining as a potentially significant use case for orbital computing.
Johnston noted that ASICs offer a cost advantage over GPUs for space operations. According to the CEO, ASICs are approximately 30 times cheaper per kilowatt than GPUs, citing a comparison between a $30,000 Nvidia B200 chip and a $1,000 ASIC, both rated at 1 kilowatt.
