By the end of the year, Starcloud, a company backed by Nvidia, plans to launch a satellite equipped with ASIC miners. This was announced by the company's CEO, Philip Johnston.
The cat is out of the bag: @Starcloud_-2 will be the first to mine 𝗕𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗶𝗻 in space.
— Philip Johnston (@PhilipJohnston) March 7, 2026
This will be a massive industry in itself. Right now, bitcoin mining consumes about 20 GW of power continuously. It makes no sense to do this on Earth, and in the end state, all of this… pic.twitter.com/tmfr8rxGOL
According to him, mining bitcoin with such equipment will be one of the most promising applications of space computing. ASIC devices are about 30 times cheaper than GPUs.
“A kilowatt chip B200 can cost $30,000, while an ASIC costs only about $1,000,” Johnston explained.
He believes orbital mining is the “business of the future,” primarily due to cost savings compared to mining on Earth. Space offers access to infinite and free solar energy.
“Bitcoin mining continuously consumes about 20 GW of energy. Doing this on Earth is pointless — sooner or later, all of this should go into orbit,” emphasized the CEO of Starcloud.
The project, which specializes in creating space data centers, was established in 2024. In November 2025, it successfully launched the Starcloud-1 satellite with Nvidia H100 into orbit.
Thanks @YCombinator for documenting @Starcloud_Inc1’s journey to launching the first @Nvidia H100 in space 🙏 Check it out below! 🎥🤓 https://t.co/aEtDRrblrF
— Starcloud (@Starcloud_) November 13, 2025
In early February 2026, the company filed an application with the FCC to deploy 88,000 solar-powered satellites for orbital data centers. Some of this equipment will be used for cryptocurrency mining.
However, the realization of these plans directly depends on SpaceX and the launch of the heavy-lift Starship rocket, which is expected in March.
Another startup focused on bitcoin mining in space is Intercosmic Energy.
According to the website, the project's mission is to launch satellites that will serve as a decentralized emission center for the first cryptocurrency. As of this writing, Intercosmic Energy has yet to implement any plans.
It’s worth noting that at the end of January, Alibaba Cloud launched the AI model Qwen-3 into space.