Starcloud Plans Bitcoin Mining in Space Using Solar Power

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Starcloud, an orbital infrastructure startup backed by Nvidia and described on its official website, plans to deploy solar-powered Bitcoin mining chips into low Earth orbit, with a launch possible as early as January 2027, according to Starcloud’s stated plans.

The planned Starcloud-2 mission would use surplus solar electricity to generate Bitcoin when demand for the company’s orbital artificial intelligence computing services falls. By drawing on near-continuous sunlight in sun-synchronous orbit, Starcloud aims to reduce reliance on terrestrial electricity infrastructure.

Bitcoin Mining Costs and Strategy

Starcloud Chief Executive Officer Philip Johnston explained the economic case for allocating spare satellite power to specialised mining hardware.

“ASICs cost roughly $1,000 per kilowatt, compared to $30,000 per kilowatt for advanced AI GPUs,” Johnston stated.

Johnston also said, “Because ASICs are 30 times cheaper, they serve as a cost-effective alternative payload to monetize the satellite’s power capacity when demand for AI computing fluctuates.”

The proposed system would redirect otherwise unused electrical capacity towards Bitcoin mining rather than leaving it idle between commercial computing workloads.

Orbital Cooling and Hardware Challenges

Operating mining equipment in space introduces significant thermal constraints. Without atmospheric convection, heat must travel through conductive structures into specialised radiator panels, which release thermal energy as infrared radiation.

Unlike terrestrial mining facilities, orbital hardware cannot readily be replaced when newer, more competitive machines become available. Mining revenue would need to offset spacecraft development, launch and deployment costs before the fixed hardware becomes uncompetitive as Bitcoin network difficulty changes.

Starcloud’s Funding and Mission Roadmap

The project follows Starcloud-1’s late-2025 orbital demonstration, which tested data processing using an Nvidia H100 GPU.

Starcloud subsequently reached a $2.3 billion valuation in mid-2026 through funding backed by Nvidia, Benchmark and Cisco.

Starcloud describes Starcloud-2 as a planned 10-kilowatt multipurpose computing deployment combining mining ASICs, Nvidia enterprise processors and Amazon Web Services server blades.