Starcloud files plans for 88,000-satellite constellation

WASHINGTON — An orbital data center startup is seeking approval from the Federal Communications Commission for a constellation of as many as 88,000 satellites.

The FCC accepted for filing March 13 an application by Starcloud, a company based in Redmond, Washington, to operate as many as 88,000 satellites in a range of low Earth orbits to serve as orbital data centers for artificial intelligence and other applications.

"Starcloud is designing its satellite system to accommodate the explosive growth of datacenter demands driven by AI, which is already encountering severe roadblocks to efforts to scale on the ground," the company wrote in its filing. "By avoiding the constraints of terrestrial deployment, space datacenters will be the most cost-effective and scalable way to deliver compute this decade.