Space data centers secure $5 million seed funding

Orbital, a new space data center company, has raised $5 million in seed funding from a16z and other investors. The company aims to deploy AI inference in space, leveraging SpaceX's Starship for launches. Founder Euwyn Poon, formerly of e-scooter company Spin, believes the growing demand for AI compute necessitates off-world solutions due to Earth's limitations. Orbital plans a demo flight with an Nvidia chip this year and aims to launch its first data-processing spacecraft in 2028, eventually deploying 10,000 satellites to provide a gigawatt of computing power. This venture highlights a shift in venture capital towards long-term, capital-intensive space projects.