Besxar is testing whether reusable rocket flights can become part of an orbital semiconductor factory. The startup has arranged a series of experiments on SpaceX Falcon 9 boosters, using small canisters to expose wafer materials to the vacuum of space and then bring them back to Earth.
The company was founded by former OpenAI employee Ashley Pilipiszyn and has raised almost $14 million, including a $9 million seed round led by Dauntless Ventures and Overture VC. Its premise is that space already provides the clean vacuum that terrestrial chip factories spend heavily to create and maintain.
Early Flights Tested Survival and Cleanliness
Besxar sent its first two “fabships” on a Starlink mission in July. The canisters were intended to show that the hardware could survive launch, protect wafer samples from contamination and expose them to space. The company says it achieved those goals, although one canister’s flight-data system malfunctioned and remains under investigation.
Pilipiszyn told TechCrunch that the flown samples contained less particulate matter than the company’s terrestrial comparison wafers. That is a company-reported result from an early experiment, not evidence that an orbital process can yet produce commercial semiconductor material at scale.
The testing program will become progressively more complex. Besxar plans first to heat wafers, then deposit one material and later two materials. Over the next two years, it expects to repeat the process across about a dozen booster flights. Pilipiszyn originally approached SpaceX about future Starship missions, but settled on booster payloads as a way to reduce technical risk before a larger vehicle is ready.
The Product Depends on a Transport System
Besxar wants to supply wafer inputs for advanced power chips used in data centers, robots and electric vehicles. The name is derived from the fictional metal “beskar,” but the company’s proposed market is conventional: existing chipmakers would receive processed materials returned from orbit.
That return trip is the central constraint. Falcon 9 boosters completed 163 round trips last year and more than 100 in the current year when TechCrunch published its report. Besxar sees that frequency as an opportunity, yet small test canisters are different from a reliable industrial supply chain. Customers would need predictable launch schedules, controlled reentry and assurance that wafers arrive without damage.
Other companies, including United Semiconductors and Space Forge, are also exploring semiconductor work in space. All face limited capacity to return meaningful volumes. Besxar says it eventually wants each fab to handle hundreds and then thousands of wafers, but that plan depends on Starship becoming operational or competitors such as Rocket Lab and Stoke Space providing alternative low-cost vehicles.
Vacuum Advantage Must Beat Total Cost
Terrestrial fabs require pressurized cleanrooms because microscopic contamination can ruin a chip process. Besxar argues that going to a natural vacuum can be cheaper than reproducing those conditions on Earth. The comparison is incomplete until launch, orbital hardware, recovery, inspection and failed missions are included.
The July flight provides useful evidence that samples and canisters can complete the journey. It does not establish deposition quality, repeatability or customer qualification. Each planned experiment will need to narrow that gap by moving from passive exposure to controlled manufacturing steps and by documenting results across multiple flights.
Besxar’s approach turns rocket cadence into part of semiconductor infrastructure. If reusable transport becomes routine and cheap, orbital processing could offer unusual material conditions without a new terrestrial cleanroom. The proposed power-chip market also gives the experiments a defined commercial destination if qualification succeeds. For now, the startup has proven that its hardware can fly and return samples. Building a factory requires proving that the process can repeat, scale and deliver wafers at a cost chipmakers will accept.
