Sophia Space Closes $10M Seed Round to Accelerate Orbital Edge Computing
Feb 24, 2026
Seed round fuels Sophia Space’s mission to deliver low-latency, AI-optimized compute in orbit and scale next-generation space-based computing infrastructure.
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Pasadena, California — Sophia Space Inc., a pioneer in modular, solar-powered, passively cooled, and AI-optimized compute technology, today announced the closing of a $10 million Seed round. The funding, led by Alpha Funds, KDDI Green Partners Fund, and Unlock Venture Partners, will accelerate development of the company’s next-generation orbital computing systems, proprietary thermal technology, and expand its engineering team to deliver autonomous compute solutions in space.
Founded by former NASA/JPL Fellow Dr. Leon Alkalai, Sophia Space is redefining computing in orbit through a scalable, space-native approach to thermal management. The company’s further developing technology is purpose-built for the extreme thermal, power, and radiation environments of space—enabling AI, cloud, and scientific workloads to operate reliably and at scale beyond Earth.
“Sophia Space is pioneering scalable supercomputing in orbit; fueling the emerging space economy, strengthening national defense infrastructure, and helping to save lives on Earth by processing massive volumes of space-generated Earth observation data in real time,” said Dr. Leon Alkalai, Founder and CTO of Sophia Space. “It effectively reduces bandwidth demands and latency, enabling faster, real-time decision-making for time-critical missions, from defense and disaster response to maritime awareness and monitoring vital energy infrastructure.”
“Moving high-performance compute into orbit isn’t just growth. It’s a separator,” added Rob DeMillo, Co-founder and CEO of Sophia Space. “Our TILE modules, enhanced with patented cooling technology, let us scale AI in ways that are simply unmatched.”
Building on its groundbreaking radiative cooling technology, Sophia Space is advancing the development of its modular TILE platform, designed to support in-orbit AI inference, edge processing, and data-intensive workloads across civil, commercial, and defense missions.
“With this Seed round, we’re not just building compute modules,” DeMillo added. “We’re building the infrastructure for the next era of space-based AI and data processing.”
“Sophia Space is delivering the kind of deep tech opportunity we look for, a space native platform solving the hard problems of thermal control, power efficiency, and reliability so AI inference and data processing can happen where the data is generated,” added Astronaut J.D. Russell, Founder and CEO of Alpha Funds. “And so we are proud to help lead this Seed round as we support Leon, Rob, and the team in scaling the TILE architecture into mission ready orbital edge computing for civil, commercial, and national security customers.”
The funding will support continued hiring of top-tier engineering talent, further maturation of the TILE platform, and the formation of strategic partnerships across the orbital computing ecosystem; addressing critical bottlenecks in satellite operations, space stations, and emerging commercial orbital data centers.
About Sophia Space Inc.
Sophia Space is building the future of orbital computing and in-space data centers. Its modular TILE (Thermal-Integrated LEO Edge) technology enables in-situ data processing, AI acceleration, and edge computing for satellites, defense systems, and commercial space stations—dramatically reducing latency and delivering actionable insights where and when they are needed. Learn more at www.sophia.space.
Media Contact:
Brian Monnin, Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer, Sophia Space
bmonnin@sophia.space
David Ariosto, Head of Communications, Sophia Space
dariosto@sophia.space
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