Crusoe and Starcloud are pioneering space-based data centers powered by solar energy to host AI compute infrastructure.

Nvidia's first H100 GPUs are heading into space next month as AI factory company Crusoe reveals its plans to become "the first public cloud operator to run workloads in outer space." The orbital Crusoe Cloud deployment will be powered by Nvidia H100 GPUs and AI accelerators in strategic partner Starcloud's AI data center satellites. Space age partners claim the H100 delivers "100x more powerful GPU (AI) compute than has been in space before."

Crusoe and Starcloud share an energy-first vision of an AI data center infrastructure that leverages solar power in space. The rays of energy-rich light emitted by the sun are unencumbered by the Earth's atmosphere in Starcloud's orbit. Thus, companies that establish these kinds of resources in space can enjoy "almost unlimited, low-cost renewable energy." Estimates suggest space-based solar-powered data centers will benefit from 10x lower energy costs, including launch cost, versus those on Earth. Space allows for massive solar panel arrays with no concerns about land use, and operating such systems puts no strain on the Earth's energy grid. Nvidia claims Starcloud will use the vacuum of deep space as "an infinite heat sink" to address GPU cooling challenges.

Starcloud is a Redmond-based Nvidia Inception program backed company focused on building data centers in space scalable to gigawatt capacities. Crusoe has a long history of co-locating its compute infrastructure near novel energy sources, making space-based GPUs a logical step for the company. "By partnering with Starcloud, we will extend our energy-first approach from Earth to the next frontier: outer space," said Cully Cavness, co-founder, president and COO of Crusoe. Philip Johnston, CEO of Starcloud, stated, "Having Crusoe as the foundational cloud provider on our platform is a perfect alignment of vision and execution. Crusoe's expertise in building rugged, efficient, and scalable computing solutions makes them the ideal partner to pioneer this new era."

Starcloud will be the first to launch Nvidia H100s into space in November 2025. Crusoe will deploy its Crusoe Cloud service on a Starcloud satellite scheduled to launch in late 2026. Subsequently, Crusoe plans to offer limited GPU capacity from space by early 2027, thus "pioneering a new paradigm for AI factories."