How an e-scooter founder raised $5 million to build space data centers
Orbital, a Los Angeles startup founded by former Spin e-scooter CEO Euwyn Poon, raised a $5 million seed round to build AI data centers in space. The round was led by venture firm a16z through its Speedrun accelerator. Orbital wants to deploy 10,000 satellites that together deliver a gigawatt of computing power for AI inference, with each satellite supplying about 100 kW.
Key Takeaways
- Orbital founder Euwyn Poon built 250,000 scooters at Spin.
- When he was ready to start a new company, a16z's Speedrun was eager to get on board, according to partner Andrew Chen, who told TechCrunch that Poon worked through several ideas before landing on space data centers.
- The price of the Falcon 9, the current state of the art, "makes this not economically feasible."
In 2028, the company hopes to launch its first data-processing spacecraft with Nvidia's Space-1 Vera Rubin-class GPUs.
- Some companies are too impatient to wait for Starship.
Cowboy Space Company, another space data center startup backed by a16z, recently decided to start building its own rockets .
- "This kind of thing would have sounded crazy 10 years ago when we were all building mobile apps," he said.
Stats & Key Facts
- #Orbital, a Los Angeles startup founded by former Spin e-scooter CEO Euwyn Poon, raised a $5 million seed round to build AI data centers in space.
- #Orbital , a new firm that emerged in May from a16z's startup accelerator program Speedrun with a $5 million seed round, is the latest company promising to do inference in space - just as soon as Starship is flying regularly.
- #Over the long term, a project like this might take a decade and $5 billion or more, but Chen said venture firms are more comfortable with timelines like that.
Orbital founder Euwyn Poon built 250,000 scooters at Spin. Now he wants to launch 10,000 space data centers. Here's one metric for tracking SpaceX's IPO later this week: The company has changed the venture industry's perspective on long-term, capital-intensive space so much that a talented founder with no space experience can fund a space data center company.
Orbital , a new firm that emerged in May from a16z's startup accelerator program Speedrun with a $5 million seed round, is the latest company promising to do inference in space - just as soon as Starship is flying regularly. Other investors include Basis Set, Human Element, Wayfinder, Antler, Anti Fund, Ascent, Rubik, Zero Knowledge Ventures, LYVC, Feld Ventures, New Legacy, FNDR, UpHonest, and Asterisk. Founder and CEO Euwyn Poon previously founded e-scooter company Spin in 2017 and sold it to Ford a year later, joining the automotive giant.
Why not head to space for limitless sunshine and limited environmental reviews? The main problem is the brutal economics of launching stuff into orbit, which currently leaves the business case unable to close. Orbital, like many of it competitors, is betting on SpaceX figuring out its Starship rocket and offering it to commercial customers.
For more details please read the original article at TechCrunch AI.
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