Besxar raises $9.4 million to make microchips in orbit

What's the deal? Space manufacturing startup BesxarDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has raised a $9.35 million seed round led by Dauntless VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The company builds semiconductors in orbit and will use the capital to accelerate its plans to deliver chips for commercial markets on Earth.

What's the endgame? Besxar wants to fabricate microchips above the Kármán line, where the natural vacuum removes the need for the artificial vacuum environments that ground facilities spend billions to replicate. Founder and chief executive officer Ashley Pilipiszyn argues that orbital production sidesteps those costs while cutting the microscopic imperfections found in traditional cleanrooms.

Why now? The round follows Besxar's first suborbital test flight, which launched aboard a SpaceXDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → Falcon 9 carrying test wafers alongside academic payloads from the University of Virginia and the University of Texas at Austin. Its hardware canisters demonstrated they could open to the space vacuum while blocking destructive elements such as atomic oxygen.

What could go wrong? Keeping sensitive materials intact through atmospheric re-entry is central to commercial viability. Rather than build its own descent vehicles, Besxar leans on established launch providers to bring payloads home — the first flight was the opening mission in a contracted series of 12 suborbital launches with SpaceX, with a second planned before year-end.

The signal: At $9.35 million, the deal sits in the 92nd percentile of seed rounds in semiconductors, based on a sample of 2,723 deals. That places Besxar among the larger early-stage bets in the sector as investors test whether orbit can become a viable factory floor for high-value chips.

Image credit: Atmospheric Infrared Sounder