Philip Johnston is co-founder and CEO of Starcloud, a company building data centers in space to solve AI's power crisis. Starcloud has already launched the first NVIDIA H100 GPU into orbit and is partnering with cloud providers like Crusoe to scale orbital computing infrastructure.

As AI demand accelerates, data centers are running into a new bottleneck: access to reliable, affordable power. Grid congestion, interconnection delays, and cooling requirements are slowing the deployment of new AI data centers, even as compute demand continues to surge. Traditional data centers face 5-10 year lead times for new power projects due to permitting, interconnection queues, and grid capacity constraints.

In this episode, Philip explains why Starcloud is building data centers in orbit, where continuous solar power is available and heat can be rejected directly into the vacuum of space. He walks through Starcloud’s first on-orbit GPU deployment, the realities of cooling and radiation in space, and how orbital data centers could relieve pressure on terrestrial power systems as AI infrastructure scales.

Episode recorded on Dec 11, 2025 (Published on Jan 13, 2026)

In this episode, we cover:

• [04:59] What Starcloud's orbital data centers look like (and how they differ from terrestrial facilities)
• [06:37] How SpaceX Starship's reusable launch vehicles change space economics
• [10:45] The $500/kg breakeven point for space-based solar vs. Earth
• [14:15] Why space solar panels produce 8x more energy than ground-based arrays
• [21:19] Thermal management: Cooling NVIDIA GPUs in a vacuum using radiators
• [25:57] Edge computing in orbit: Real-time inference on satellite imagery
• [29:22] The Crusoe partnership: Selling power-as-a-service in space
• [31:21] Starcloud's business model: Power, cooling, and connectivity
• [34:18] Addressing critics: What could prevent orbital data centers from working

Key Takeaways:

• Starcloud launched the first NVIDIA H100 GPU into orbit in November 2024
• Space solar produces 8x more energy per square meter than terrestrial solar
• Breakeven launch cost for orbital data centers: $500/kg
• Current customers: DOD and commercial Earth observation satellites needing real-time inference
• Target: 10 gigawatts of orbital computing capacity by early 2030s

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.

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• Cody Simms on LinkedIn
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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Kurt Terrani is CEO of Standard Nuclear, a company focused on a part of nuclear energy that gets far less attention than reactor designs but can become the true bottleneck: fuel.

In this episode, Kurt provides a nuclear fuels 101, walking through the front end of the fuel cycle from uranium processing and enrichment to fabrication. He explains in plain terms what makes TRISO fuel different, why it appears so frequently in next-generation reactor designs, and how fuel performance shapes reactor economics, safety, and scalability.

The conversation also unpacks Standard Nuclear’s origin story, which emerged from a Chapter 11 restructuring of UltraSafe Nuclear, and explores a future where reactor-agnostic fuel suppliers replace vertically integrated fuel strategies to unlock faster deployment across advanced nuclear technologies.

Episode recorded on Dec 4, 2025 (Published on Jan 6, 2026)

In this episode, we cover:

• [1:53] An overview of Standard Nuclear
• [3:26] Nuclear’s history in Oak Ridge, TN
• [6:07] The nuclear fuel cycle
• [8:35] US involvement and ownership in this cycle
• [10:17] TRISO fuel or coated particle fuel
• [17:56] Why enrichment access constrains deployment
• [21:43] Government’s role bridging fuel supply gaps
• [24:03] Why reactor companies try vertical integration
• [26:26] Standard Nuclear’s origin story
• [28:51] Why fuel must become a commodity
• [33:42] The case for standardizing TRISO specs
• [39:20] Challenges of building a fuels company

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.

Connect with MCJ:

• Cody Simms on LinkedIn
• Visit mcj.vc
• Subscribe to the MCJ Newsletter

*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Aleks Gampel is COO and Co-founder at Cuby, a company rethinking how homes are built in the middle of a nationwide housing crisis. The cost of housing has soared while construction productivity has barely budged in decades, and today’s homes are still built through slow, wasteful, and carbon-intensive processes that aren’t designed for escalating climate risks. Instead of shipping prefab boxes across the country, Cuby asks what it would look like if housing finally had its assembly line moment—and the factory moved to where homes are needed. Their mobile microfactories are inflatable, rapidly deployable facilities that manufacture standardized home components on or near the job site using mostly unskilled labor, then assemble houses in a predictable, repeatable way. In this conversation, Aleks unpacks the roots of the housing shortage, why past modular attempts fell short, and how Cuby’s model could change what’s possible for housing affordability, waste reduction, and resilience.

Episode recorded on Nov 20, 2025 (Published on Dec 16, 2025)

In this episode, we cover:

• [4:40] Causes for the housing crisis today
• [8:17] Emissions associated with housing and how Cuby differs
• [12:54] An overview of industrialized construction
• [16:43] Main challenges with industrialized construction
• [19:25] Cuby’s antithesis to centralized gigafactories in construction
• [27:08] How Cuby’s inflatable mobile microfactory works
• [30:17] Cuby’s European headquarters and China facility
• [31:57] Cuby’s single-family home design
• [33:30] The company’s business model
• [37:52] Why Cuby isn’t displacing jobs
• [38:55] The company’s funding to date
• [40:15] What’s next for Cuby

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.

Connect with MCJ:

• Cody Simms on LinkedIn
• Visit mcj.vc
• Subscribe to the MCJ Newsletter

*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant