Peter Johnston

Working, investing and other things.

[Peter Johnston @multiplay3r]

True.

[Aaron Levie @levie]

CEOs are uniquely prone to AI psychosis because they’re sufficiently distant from the last mile of work that still has to happen to generate most value with AI.

So when they play with AI, they see the happy path results, often not considering the next 10 or 20 things that have to happen to get sustainable results from agents.

“Look I made this awesome product prototype”. Yes but you didn’t have to review the code before it went into production and fix a bunch of issues.

“Look I generated a contract”. Yes but you didn’t verify all the terms before it goes out to the counterparty and didn’t have to wire up all the past contracts to work with.

The best thing you can do as a CEO is to use AI a *ton* to figure out the real implications of agents in the enterprise, and come out the other side with an appreciation for both the upside and the real work that goes into them.

[Philip Johnston @PhilipJohnston]

I’m super excited to share that we have signed a contract with @SpaceX @Starlink to integrate its mini laser terminals onto our satellites for high bandwidth, low latency connectivity!

[Peter Johnston @multiplay3r]

@leifthunder Can I have one

[Public @public]

NEW: You can now build AI Agents that monitor the market, manage your cash, and execute your trades. The Agentic Brokerage has arrived.

[Peter Johnston @multiplay3r]

@public Awesome

[Peter Johnston @multiplay3r]

Mega congrats to @PhilipJohnston and the Starcloud team. Creating the future! 🛰️🌌 + s/o @FinnMurphy12 for backing them way before data centers in space were THE thing.

Excited to invest in their Series A. Absolutely zero to do with the fact we are 5th cousins ☘️#Johnstonclan

[Philip Johnston @PhilipJohnston]

I am super excited to share that @Starcloud_ has raised a $170M Series A at a $1.1bn valuation to fuel our development of data centers in space 🚀

The round comes after the successful deployment of our first satellite, Starcould-1, a few months ago, which had the first @NVIDIA H100 on board and was the first to train an LLM in space. The funds will be used to develop our third satellite, which aims to be cost-competitive with Earth-based data centers in terms of AI inference cost.

The round was led by @Benchmark and @EQT Ventures, and we are excited to welcome Benchmark GP, @Chetanp Puttagunta, to our board. We are also excited to welcome other new investors, including the world's largest infrastructure fund, @Macquarie Capital, @SevenSevenSix 7️⃣7️⃣6️⃣, Manhattan West, Adjacent, Carya, GSBackers, and Harpoon.

We are very grateful for the continued support of existing investors, including @NFX, @NebularVC, @YCombinator, @FUSE_VC, @Soma_Capital, 3Capital Partners, Wyld VC, Tiny VC, and Taurus Ventures.

Onwards!

[Philip Johnston @PhilipJohnston]

I am super excited to share that @Starcloud_ has raised a $170M Series A at a $1.1bn valuation to fuel our development of data centers in space 🚀

The round comes after the successful deployment of our first satellite, Starcould-1, a few months ago, which had the first @NVIDIA H100 on board and was the first to train an LLM in space. The funds will be used to develop our third satellite, which aims to be cost-competitive with Earth-based data centers in terms of AI inference cost.

The round was led by @Benchmark and @EQT Ventures, and we are excited to welcome Benchmark GP, @Chetanp Puttagunta, to our board. We are also excited to welcome other new investors, including the world's largest infrastructure fund, @Macquarie Capital, @SevenSevenSix 7️⃣7️⃣6️⃣, Manhattan West, Adjacent, Carya, GSBackers, and Harpoon.

We are very grateful for the continued support of existing investors, including @NFX, @NebularVC, @YCombinator, @FUSE_VC, @Soma_Capital, 3Capital Partners, Wyld VC, Tiny VC, and Taurus Ventures.

Onwards!

[Finn Murphy @FinnMurphy12]

Starcloud just raised $170,000,000 at a $1.1 billion valuation led by Benchmark & EQT because investors are finally realising there is only one solution to the AI energy crisis.

Fortuitously for the 5th Episode of Forecast 2050 I sat down with my friend, @Starcloud_ CEO @PhilipJohnston to discuss how this future plays out.

I wrote the biggest check out of Nebular in my first year of the firm back in December 2023 to lead Starcloud's pre-seed. It’s been quite the ride since then. @ezrafeilden & @AdiOltean also the heros and visionaries creating this category of space data centres.

On the Forecast we speak about Philip’s ambitions - and his greatest concerns - for the next 25 years.
We discuss:

Why the Space GPU Skeptics are Wrong
The 2050 Space Economy: Asteroid Mining, Moon Resorts, and Mars as the Next America
How Elon’s @Tesla_Optimus Will Colonize the Universe
The Hard Problem of Consciousness is Crackable
Avoiding a Calamitous Event in the Near Future

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:59 Why the Space GPU Skeptics are Wrong
03:12 Elon Will Bring Launch Costs Down with Starship
06:50 The 2050 Space Economy: Moon Hotels, Asteroid Mining & Manufacturing
16:37 The 2050 Martian Colony: A Stepping Stone for Exploring the Universe
26:32 The Kardashev Scale of Civilization
28:44 We Live in a Simulation: The Fermi Paradox & The Great Filter
34:52 Cracking the Hard Problem of Consciousness
37:46 There is a Calamitous Event Waiting for Us
39:04 Mars is the Next America

Thanks to @wavebyvento, @vento_ventures, and @dwarkesh_sp for permission to use some snippets for this interview! + big big ups to some of the gang that invested on the journey early like @pmoe, @deckelly, @arcurn, @Varungupta, @caffeinatedcap, @beller, @ncsh @jamiecuffe - long Starcloud 🙏

[Peter Johnston @multiplay3r]

@rrhoover Lol

[Peter Johnston @multiplay3r]

Epic company. Formidable founders who’ve executed from day one. Truly needed product. Excited to see this announced.

[Kindred @livekindred]

Home swapping is going mainstream.

Kindred raises $125,000,000 as travelers look for more affordable, trust based ways to explore the world.

Nearly 300k members. ~350k nights.
A new category of travel is here.
via @Forbes
https://t.co/WYtN59KroZ

[Peter Johnston @multiplay3r]

To those that need to know, you should put @rrhoover on your cap table. Heavyweight value add.

[Devon ☀️ @devonzuegel]

It's no exaggeration to say that @live_kindred has changed my life

I travel a lot for work/family, and Kindred has massively upgraded my lodging while also slashing cost

The homes are much larger and more homey than a hotel room, and they have proper desks!

[Peter Johnston @multiplay3r]

Only JFK could spend billions of dollars and make the experience at the airport 10x worse. Morons.

[Peter Johnston @multiplay3r]

In the same boat. Have bounced around ChatGPT, Claude etc for a couple of years, the differences felt meh. Used Gemini 3 for the first time last week and it was night and day. Just moved it to my home screen.

[Marc Benioff @Benioff]

Holy shit. I’ve used ChatGPT every day for 3 years. Just spent 2 hours on Gemini 3. I’m not going back. The leap is insane — reasoning, speed, images, video… everything is sharper and faster. It feels like the world just changed, again. ❤️ 🤖 https://t.co/HruXhc16Mq

[Peter Johnston @multiplay3r]

@rahulkartgupta congrats dude --- drinks! @varungupta

[Varun Gupta @Varungupta]

Agreed, but @FinnMurphy12, Caffeinated, and a few others were the first investors in Starcloud. They joined YC later

[Peter Johnston @multiplay3r]

Super excited about this. Mega congrats @jgebbia!

[David Sacks @davidsacks47]

Congrats to Joe Gebbia on becoming the first Chief Design Officer of the United States. In this newly created role, Joe will oversee the redesign of roughly 26,000 federal web portals, many of which are obsolete, so they better serve social security recipients, veterans, and all citizens.

As a former cofounder of @Airbnb, @jgebbia could have done anything next but decided to volunteer his time and expertise to public service. Thank you Joe.

And thank you to President Trump for creating this new function by executive order and continuing to attract the best talent from the private sector to join his administration. It’s an honor to be part of!

[Peter Johnston @multiplay3r]

@FinnMurphy12 lmao

[Peter Johnston @multiplay3r]

Just partnered with @FinnMurphy12, ink still wet on the paperwork 😉. Strong recommend founders get in touch. This is a big endorsement as I am from Northern Ireland and he is from the South of Ireland. 😅☘️

[Finn Murphy @FinnMurphy12]

When I was pondering a name for Nebular, the James Webb space telescope sent back its first images.

Nebulae spotted light years away by a bunch of hexagonal mirrors floating in Earth's shadow - dust fusing to form stars.

Felt like a good name. Needed a site & brand to match.

[Peter Johnston @multiplay3r]

@FinnMurphy12 Love it