Satlyt Raises $8 Million to Run AI Across Satellites as an Open Orbital Computing Layer

Satlyt, a startup founded in 2024 to build software that runs artificial intelligence models directly on satellites, has raised an $8 million seed round, co-founder Rama Afullo told TechCrunch. The company aims to let many satellites share large computing jobs in orbit, positioning itself as an open alternative to vertically integrated efforts from larger players.

Afullo, a Kenyan American engineer, previously worked in Google's cloud computing business and had a brief stint at SpaceX's Starlink network in 2024. He says he pitched the idea of orbital data centers internally at both companies and was told no. He then left SpaceX to co-found Satlyt, which is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and Nairobi.

Unlike SpaceX, Google, or startups such as Starcloud and Cowboy Space Company, Satlyt does not plan to build its own spacecraft. Instead the team builds software to operate AI models on satellites, an approach Afullo compares to VMware and Snowflake. "The folks like SpaceX who are doing orbital data centers, if they are the iPhone, we'll build Android as a horizontally integrated, open ecosystem," he said. The company's software is set to launch Thursday on a SpaceX rocket alongside the first prototype of Google's Project Suncatcher.

Satlyt has already flown its software on two demonstration missions. Its initial focus is operational efficiency, using onboard AI to resolve anomalies or process sensor data instead of relying on costly downlink to ground controllers. Earlier this year the company deployed Google DeepMind's Gemma AI model on a spacecraft operated by Momentus, cutting the size of a transmission about onboard software errors by more than 60%. Afullo says such efficiency can save hundreds of thousands of dollars per satellite each year.

This week's launch will run Satlyt's software on a spacecraft built by TakeMe2Space, an Indian startup that builds satellite computing hardware. The mission involves three customers: NASA, which is paying to test protocols for cloud computing in space; Stellerian, a startup focused on space surveillance that wants to test image processing workloads; and TakeMe2Space itself, to show the satellite can host other companies' software. The seed round was led by Houston-based Non Sibi Ventures, where partner Bernard Harris, a former NASA astronaut of more than 20 years, helped ground the firm's conviction.

Non Sibi partner Kent Lucas said one reason the firm invested was that Satlyt does not depend on the most ambitious vision of space data centers, which faces uncertain economics and a launch bottleneck. "We don't need data centers in space for Rama to be wildly successful, right?" Lucas said. "It can just be driven by the number of satellites going up." Afullo frames the offering plainly: "The way to think about it is that we turn your satellite into a revenue-generating managed service."

Satlyt's next project is to show it can create a shared computing system, or cloud, spanning two different satellites, an attempt it expects next year. If successful, that would let the company build a true compute cloud in orbit as a third-party provider to spacecraft builders. Afullo hopes to be live on 20% of satellites by the end of the decade, when he expects virtually every spacecraft builder to be installing GPUs and similar advanced processors. "If you're putting up a satellite without putting up a GPU on it, at the very least, you're doing yourself a disservice," he said.