The British startup claims that microgravity and the vacuum of orbit allow for purer crystals for chips for AI, communications and defense infrastructure; ForgeStar-1 launched in 2025 on SpaceX and demonstrated plasma creation as a step towards commercial manufacturing and returning materials to Earth
The British company Space Forge, which operates from Cardiff and develops small "factories" in orbit around the Earth, claims that microgravity and a space free of contaminants can lead to purer and more ordered raw materials for chips—a path to improved performance and energy efficiency, with a focus also on markets such as communications infrastructure, data centers and defense.
Space Forge was founded in 2018 by CEO Joshua Western and CTO Andrew Bacon with the goal of taking advantage of conditions that are difficult or impossible to achieve on Earth: near-zero gravity, a natural vacuum, and lower levels of particulate pollutants. According to the company, this combination can help create high-quality crystal "seeds"—a foundation on which advanced materials for the chip industry can later be "grown" back on Earth.
Why produce materials for chips in space?
The basic scientific logic behind "microgravity manufacturing" is also familiar from other fields: when the effect of gravity is almost completely eliminated, phenomena such as settling and layer separation can be reduced, and processes can be more uniform—at least in some applications. For example, NASA describes how microgravity conditions can help produce more homogeneous thin layers and fewer defects in certain structures.
In Space Forge's case, the claim is that crystals destined for the chip industry—particularly advanced materials where "atomic order" and purity determine performance—can come out "cleaner and more precise" if the process is started in orbit. The company presents this as the potential for more energy-efficient chips and components suited to high-power loads in communications, aerospace and defense.
The airborne factory that has already taken to orbit
The company's main experiment today is the launch of a small factory satellite called ForgeStar-1, designed to demonstrate the operational capabilities of "manufacturing tools" in space. As part of the mission, the company succeeded in activating plasma—a gas heated to very high temperatures (about 1,000 degrees Celsius)—a technological step that it considers a prerequisite for the production of advanced materials and crystals. This is a milestone that demonstrates that it is possible to produce and control the conditions necessary for gas-phase crystal growth processes on an autonomous platform in low orbit.
The next step is not just to “produce up” but also to safely return the product to Earth—and this is the barrier that separates an interesting demonstration from a commercial model. This is where the reentry technology that the company is developing comes into play: a collapsible heat shield called Pridwen, which has been described in some reports as a kind of “umbrella” or unfolded shield that slows and protects the payload on its way back through the atmosphere. The goal is to enable a high-frequency “walk-and-return trajectory.”
At the same time, the company raised a Series A round of £22.6 million (about $30 million) led by the NATO Innovation Fund—a sign that applications in the areas of critical infrastructure and defense are firmly on the radar.
The big challenges
Even if the technology works, three big questions remain:
Regulation: Industrial activity in space involves launch licensing, safety, liability, and sometimes also a lack of clarity regarding taxation and the status of products that return from orbit to different countries. The company itself claims that this is one of the main barriers to shortening schedules.
Return logistics: Manufacturing in space will only become economically interesting if payloads can be landed reliably—and this is where the entire industry is still building its muscles. At the same time, other companies are already demonstrating a similar approach: for example, Varda Space Industries, which is developing return capsules and reporting on missions in which payloads and data are returned from orbit.
Proving value to the customer: The chip industry is huge, but also conservative when it comes to supply chain. For manufacturers to embrace “space material,” they will want to see consistency, quality data, and scale. While the macroeconomic backdrop supports the search for advantage—notably due to the demands of AI, HBM, and advanced packaging—projections range widely. Deloitte, for example, is targeting a “trillion-dollar chip market” around 2030, while others are projecting faster scenarios.
A “space-launched factory” is an idea that sounds like science fiction, but it is already taking on engineering form: in-orbit tool experiments, return technologies, and significant funding. The question that remains open is whether, within a few years, it will transform from an experimental pipeline into a reliable production line at a pace that justifies an entire industry changing its habits.
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