Lumen Orbit closed one of the biggest rounds from Y Combinator’s last cohort
Lumen Orbit closes $10M seed round aiming for space AI data centers.
Lumen Orbit, a startup from Y Combinator's 2024 summer batch, raised over $10 million in a seed round, marking it among the most significant deals of the cohort. This Redmond, Washington-based company aims to construct a network of space-based data centers capable of scaling to gigawatt capacities for training large AI models.
Founded in January 2024 by Philip Johnston, Ezra Feilden, and Adi Oltean, Lumen has garnered substantial attention from venture capitalists due to its ambitious mission. Despite its lofty goals, the company has made progress and plans to launch a demonstrator satellite in 2025 with Nvidia's support through their Inception program.
The initiative comes amid increased interest in augmenting data center capabilities, with Lumen Orbit's competitors like Lonestar Data Holdings also exploring extraterrestrial solutions. Although these companies face potential challenges in customer adoption, venture capitalists remain keen on supporting innovative approaches to the burgeoning data center crisis.