Orbital raises $5M to test Nvidia chips in orbit
orbital raised $5m in seed funding to launch nvidia blackwell chips into space for ai inference, betting that spacex starship will eventually lower launch costs enough to make orbital data centers economically viable.
orbital, a new space data center startup founded by spin co-founder euwyn poon, raised $5m in seed funding from a16z and others to perform ai inference in orbit. the company plans to fly an nvidia blackwell chip on a demo flight this year and launch data-processing spacecraft with nvidia space-1 gpus by 2028, eventually targeting a constellation of 10,000 satellites. the venture relies on spacexs starship to reduce the brutal economics of launch, with partner andrew chen noting that ai demand justifies long-term capital efforts.