K2 Space raises $500m to build giant, high-power satellites

This article was published on July 31, 2026 While most of the satellite industry races to build smaller, K2 Space is going the other way on purpose. It has raised $500m at a $6.8bn valuation, led by Kleiner Perkins and ICONIQ, to build the biggest, highest-power satellites in orbit. The bet is that power decides capability, and it is aiming at defence work now and AI data centres in space by 2028. Most satellite startups are racing to build smaller. K2 Space is going the other way, on purpose. Investors just handed it $500 million to keep going bigger. K2 raised a $500 million Series D at a $6.8 billion valuation, it said on Thursday. Kleiner Perkins and ICONIQ led the round, with Alphabet’s CapitalG, Lightspeed and ARK Invest among the backers. That more than doubles the $3 billion valuation it carried months ago. K2 has now raised over $1 billion, against more than $1 billion in signed contracts. The bet is contrarian. Most of the industry shrinks satellites to cut launch costs. K2 argues the opposite: in orbit, power decides what a satellite can do, so it builds big, high-power ones instead. Its first “mega-class” satellite, Gravitas, reached orbit in March on a SpaceX Falcon 9.