Starcloud, an Nvidia-backed orbital data center startup, will begin mining Bitcoin in orbit later this year when it launches its second spacecraft. Starcloud CEO Philip Johnston stated that ASIC miners operating in orbit are one of the most compelling use cases for space computing, costing only about $1,000 per kilowatt-hour, roughly 30 times cheaper than a $30,000 GPU. Johnston believes that Bitcoin mining consumes approximately 20 GW of continuous power on Earth, and that the industry will eventually move to orbit. Founded in early 2024, Starcloud aims to build orbital data centers to address the energy needs of AI, and its data centers consist of approximately 88,000 satellites, primarily powered by solar energy.