Article reprinted from: Nancy
Author: Nancy, PANews
The next battlefield for AI computing power is extending into space, gradually becoming a new direction for commercial narratives.
After successfully launching the first space AI server, a recent space computing startup plans to send Bitcoin mining into outer space.
The plan to mine Bitcoin in space this year may symbolize more than its actual value.
Having passed the initial phase of competing in chips and models, the competition for AI computing power has quietly shifted towards a struggle for energy. Electricity, as the core resource in this competition, is rapidly becoming a scarce resource in the global computing power contest. This shift not only changes the industry landscape but also directly reconstructs the cost structure of the Bitcoin mining industry.
Notably, the previously steady Bitcoin miners are now turning towards the AI computing track. This transformation is driven by survival pressure from Bitcoin halving, increased competition, rising energy costs that compress profits, and the enormous opportunities presented by AI narratives.
As the profitability of Bitcoin mining is squeezed by global energy competition, Starcloud has proposed a bold plan to move Bitcoin mining into space.
In a recent interview with HyperChange, Starcloud CEO Philip Johnston revealed that the company is currently focused primarily on existing space computing power business, but also has plans for Bitcoin mining. Starcloud will carry some ASIC hardware designed specifically for Bitcoin mining on the Starcloud-2 satellite, which is set to launch later in 2026. If this plan succeeds, Starcloud will become the world's first spacecraft to mine Bitcoin in space.
Johnston believes that space has multiple natural advantages over Earth. First, space has an unlimited supply of continuous solar energy, which is more stable and cheaper than renewable energy on Earth; at the same time, the environment in space is superior; although the temperature difference and radiation are extreme, they can significantly reduce the thermal energy consumption of hardware, lowering cooling costs and the burden of equipment maintenance. Most importantly, Bitcoin mining in space can avoid the increasingly tight energy bottlenecks, grid restrictions, and regulatory pressures on Earth. Currently, about 20GW of electricity is used for Bitcoin mining on Earth, and this large-scale electricity consumption is no longer feasible on the ground. However, in space, utilizing solar energy to obtain cheap energy will provide a entirely new solution for Bitcoin mining.
Johnston also added that the cost of Bitcoin mining equipment typically ranges from $600 to several thousand dollars, far below NVIDIA's enterprise-grade GPUs (which usually exceed $30,000). This makes the economics of space Bitcoin mining highly attractive.
Starcloud sees Bitcoin mining in space as a type of 'future business,' by utilizing solar energy in space to obtain cheap energy, and openly states that this is also one of the reasons it and other companies (including SpaceX) are building data centers in space. Space mining can not only significantly reduce costs but also provide a completely new resource acquisition model for the global computing power market.
The concept of space mining is not proposed for the first time. Last year, Intercosmic Energy also stated that it was researching Bitcoin mining in space.
However, conducting Bitcoin mining in space still faces many challenges. Johnston also admitted that the economics of Bitcoin mining in space remain unstable. Currently, Bitcoin ASIC devices can operate on any cheap energy source, and with the continuous introduction of new devices, the profitability of mining equipment may decline rapidly.
Moreover, while launch costs have been decreasing year by year, sending hardware into space remains an expensive task. Compared to terrestrial mining, the startup and maintenance costs of space mining are still high, including expenses for launching, spacecraft integration, satellite communication, equipment upgrades, and more.
Even more challenging is the harsh requirement of the space environment for hardware. Bitcoin mining ASIC devices need to operate stably under extreme conditions such as high radiation and extreme temperature changes, which poses severe tests for the performance and lifespan of the equipment. Maintenance and upgrades of devices will also become a significant challenge, as once a failure occurs, the costs and difficulties of repairing and replacing hardware will increase dramatically.
Previously, many organizations in the cryptocurrency circle had already been exploring how to bring blockchain business into space. For example, the veteran company Blockstream in the Bitcoin community has been renting multiple geostationary satellites since 2017 to broadcast Bitcoin blockchain data globally for free. Even if there is a large-scale internet outage on Earth (such as due to natural disasters or human blockades), as long as you have a small satellite dish (receiver), you can synchronize the Bitcoin ledger and complete transactions. SpaceChain installed the first commercial Ethereum node on the International Space Station (ISS) as early as 2019. Earlier this year, a new project focused on space commerce, Spacecoin, also attracted market attention by achieving cryptocurrency payment settlements through a satellite network.
Therefore, in space mining, the short-term investment may far exceed the returns, and currently, it is more symbolic in meaning, or it serves as a narrative tool for this startup to attract market attention.
For the first time in human history, NVIDIA AI servers have been sent into space.
Founded in 2024, Starcloud, formerly known as Lumen Orbit, has already emerged in the global tech circle as one of the first companies to propose building data centers in space.
As a member of the NVIDIA acceleration program and a participant in the Y Combinator and Google Cloud incubator projects, Starcloud is not simply relocating data centers to space; its goal is to utilize the unique resources in the space environment to build infrastructure capable of supporting AI computing and large-scale calculations.
Currently, Starcloud has completed at least $21 million in financing, backed by well-known investment institutions such as NFX, Y Combinator, FUSE, Soma Capital, a16z, and Sequoia Capital.
Starcloud has already secured a place in the space AI computing power competition. In November last year, Starcloud completed the first-ever large model training in space orbit, launching its Starcloud-1 satellite via SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, sending NVIDIA H100 GPUs into Earth orbit, and successfully running Google's open-source AI large model Gemma, sending the first message from space back to Earth: 'Hello, Earthlings!'
At that time, Philip Johnston stated that space AI is not a gimmick; the company's goal is to achieve energy costs for orbital data centers that are 10 times lower than those of terrestrial data centers.
After achieving initial success, Starcloud's ambitions have not stopped. Recently, the company submitted an application to the FCC to deploy a massive constellation consisting of 88,000 satellites to build a distributed, space-based AI training and cloud computing platform. However, turning this vision into reality is fraught with enormous challenges. From funding scale, regulatory approval, launch capacity, orbital resource allocation to operational sustainability, this is not only a commercial competition but also a systematic engineering challenge, with each step filled with uncertainty and complexity.
Not only Starcloud, but as the demand for computing resources in the AI industry continues to rise, more and more tech companies are seeking new sources of computing power, making space gradually the focus of this competition. For example, Google officially launched its solar catcher program at the end of last year, announcing plans to send its self-developed TPU AI chips into space to build a prototype space data center powered by solar energy. Not long ago, SpaceX, owned by Musk, submitted an application to deploy 1 million satellites in Earth orbit to build orbital data centers. Recently, data storage and disaster recovery company Lonestar collaborated with semiconductor and storage company Phiso to launch a set of data center infrastructure towards the Moon via SpaceX rockets.
As the concept of space data centers is moving from science fiction to reality, a new arms race for infrastructure is unfolding. According to Musk's predictions, in five years, the annual increase in space AI computing power will reach hundreds of gigawatts; the AI computing power sent into space each year will exceed the historical cumulative total of all AI on Earth.
At that time, the main battlefield for AI computing power competition will truly shift to space. In the coming years, we will see more commercial explorations and technological innovations; space mining may just be one of the stepping stones in this wave.