Starcloud CEO Outlines Plan to Mine Bitcoin in Outer Space
Starcloud CEO Philip Johnston says the Nvidia-supported startup plans to begin Bitcoin mining in space later this year using its second spacecraft, leveraging low-cost ASIC miners and a long-term vision of deploying tens of thousands of solar-powered satellites.
The statement accurately reflects public announcements made by Starcloud CEO Philip Johnston in March 2026. Multiple reputable news outlets (Cointelegraph, PCMag) and the CEO's own social media accounts confirm the plan to use the Starcloud-2 spacecraft for orbital Bitcoin mining. The technical details provided in the claim, such as the use of ASICs and the long-term vision of solar-powered satellite constellations, match the reported details of the company's strategy.
Starcloud CEO Philip Johnston revealed that the Nvidia-supported orbital data center startup plans to begin Bitcoin mining in space later in 2025 using its second spacecraft. Johnston stated that ASIC miners used for the operation cost about $1,000 per kWh, significantly cheaper than GPUs that can cost around $30,000. Founded in early 2024, Starcloud is developing space-based infrastructure powered by solar energy and ultimately aims to deploy around 88,000 satellites to support orbital computing and mining operations.
- Bitcoin mining: The computational process of validating Bitcoin transactions and securing the network, where miners use specialized hardware to compete for block rewards.
- ASIC miners: Application-Specific Integrated Circuit devices designed specifically for cryptocurrency mining, offering far greater efficiency and lower power cost per hash compared with general-purpose hardware like GPUs.
- Starcloud: An orbital data center startup developing space-based computing infrastructure, including plans to deploy satellites capable of supporting operations such as Bitcoin mining.