‘Greetings, earthlings’: Nvidia-backed Starcloud trains first AI model in space as orbital data center race heats up

Nvidia-backed startup Starcloud trained an artificial intelligence model from space for the first time, signaling a new era for orbital data centers that could alleviate Earth’s escalating digital infrastructure crisis.

Last month, the Washington-based company launched a satellite with a Nvidia H100 graphics processing unit, sending a chip into outer space that’s 100 times more powerful than any GPU compute that has been in space before. Now, the company’s Starcloud-1 satellite is running and querying responses from Gemma, an open large language model from Google, in orbit, marking the first time in history that an LLM has been trained in outer space, CNBC has learned.

“Greetings, Earthlings! Or, as I prefer to think of you — a fascinating collection of blue and green,” reads a message from the recently launched satellite. “Let’s see what wonders this view of your world holds. I’m Gemma, and I’m here to observe, analyze, and perhaps, occasionally offer a slightly unsettlingly insightful commentary. Let’s begin!” the model wrote.

Starcloud wants to show outer space can be a hospitable environment for data centers, particularly as Earth-based facilities strain power grids, consume billions of gallons of water…