As space companies push to deploy the most advanced chips into orbit, the challenge of cooling those high-powered processors is a top priority. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang highlighted the issue, noting that while space is cold, there is no airflow. This means heat can only be dissipated through conduction.
Sophia Space has raised $10 million from investors, including Alpha Funds, KDDI Green Partners Fund, and Unlock Venture Partners. The company plans to validate a new approach to passively cooling space computers on the ground. Following that, it will purchase a satellite bus from Apex Space and demonstrate the technology in orbit by late 2027 or early 2028.
While companies like SpaceX, Google, or Starcloud are examining traditional satellite designs for proposed space data center constellations—relying on large radiators for thermal management—Sophia Space’s founders have a different approach. The company’s technology originates from a $100 million endowed program at Caltech, which aimed to develop orbital solar plants to beam electricity to Earth. That research produced a thin, flexible, sail-like structure, contrasting with traditional boxy satellites.
Although producing electricity for Earth from space faces technical and regulatory hurdles, Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory fellow Leon Alkalai saw potential in using the design to power space-based processors. Sophia Space, an Nvidia partner, has designed modular server racks with integrated solar panels called TILES. Each TILE measures one meter by one meter and is a few centimeters deep. This thin form factor allows processors to sit against a passive heat spreader, eliminating the need for active cooling. CEO Rob DeMillo states that this design could direct 92% of generated power to processing, a significant improvement over traditional systems. However, it requires sophisticated software to balance activity across the processors.
By the 2030s, Sophia aims to construct larger space data centers composed of thousands of TILES. The vision is a 50-meter-by-50-meter structure capable of delivering 1 MW of computing power. DeMillo argues that less efficient systems will not make space data centers economical, and that a single large structure will be easier to execute than a distributed network linked by lasers.
Initially, Sophia plans to offer its TILES to satellite operators needing computing solutions in orbit. Potential partners include Earth-observation satellites that collect vast amounts of sensor data, missile warning and tracking systems being funded by the Pentagon, or advanced communications networks. DeMillo points out a key industry challenge: many satellites with powerful sensors produce terabytes or petabytes of data every few minutes, but most of it is discarded because they cannot process it on board or transmit it to the surface quickly enough.