Kevin Weil, a veteran technology executive known for his work at Twitter, Meta, Planet Labs and OpenAI, has joined the board of Stoke Space, a deep-funded Seattle startup developing reusable rockets to compete with SpaceX.
“It’s really a no-brainer for me,” Stoke CEO Andy Lapsa told TechCrunch about co-founding Stoke in 2020 and meeting Weil shortly after when he joined Y Combinator’s winter batch. “I graduated from engineering and started a company, but I didn’t know how to raise money. I didn’t know how Silicon Valley worked. I didn’t have a network. Kevin[who was an early investor in the company with his wife Elizabeth through his fund Scribble Ventures]had all that background and helped me think about raising money and starting the company.
The two continued their conversation while Rapsa raised $1.34 billion, including a $510 million Series D funding round in 2025, to build a rapidly reusable rocket that could fly this year. Now seems like the right time for Mr. Weil to join the board to continue the company’s expansion. Stork declined to be interviewed by Weil and did not respond to calls from TechCrunch.
Weil’s previous work has focused on digital products and platforms, which are clearly not on Stoke’s roadmap. He most recently led OpenAI’s efforts to accelerate scientific research, but left the company in April as the program’s efforts expanded more broadly across Frontier Labs. He previously served as Chief Product Officer at OpenAI from June 2024 to October 2025.
Mr. Weill’s last work raises one obvious question. OpenAI’s Sam Altman got into Stoke in earnest last year and was reportedly considering investing in a SpaceX competitor. Could Weil be the bridge between Frontier AI Labs and potential partners in space? Rapsa declined to comment on “gossip and rumors” about open AI, saying Weil’s role is to focus on Stoke itself.
Stork is building Nova, a rocket that is completely reusable and is intended to fly multiple times. No one has done it before, and SpaceX is the closest with its giant Starship rocket. The technical challenges of reusing rockets, especially their ability to withstand the extreme temperatures during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere from space, have deterred even the most deep-pocketed space investors. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, where Lapsa once worked, embraced this approach, but didn’t make it a priority.
But now SpaceX’s blockbuster stock market debut, with much of its value resting on Elon Musk’s promise that Starship will fly an operational mission this year, has proven Lapsa’s foresight. Despite billions of dollars being invested in new launch vehicles, there aren’t enough rockets, and the next company to fly the next affordable rocket on a regular basis promises to make a fortune.
“The world is realizing that the launch problem is not yet solved,” Lapsa said. “The idea of complete and rapid reuse wasn’t very common back then, but it’s now rather normalized and people now understand it’s inevitable.”
In particular, the idea of building distributed data centers in space to harness solar power and escape political regulations on Earth has captured the imagination of some venture capitalists. The main obstacle there is the cost of getting all these computer chips into orbit. Space data centers “only make sense if they are completely and quickly reused,” Lapsa said, adding that this could be a key differentiator for Stoke as it begins flying rockets.
Military contracts are also key to the company’s success, and Mr. Weil has experience bridging the gap between Silicon Valley and the Pentagon. He was one of four technology champions and change makers who joined the U.S. Army Reserve to improve recruitment and collaboration between the Army and industry. And this isn’t his first time in the space business. Mr. Weil served as president of Planet Labs, a satellite earth observation company, for three years until the company went public in 2021.
But whatever Weil can add to the company’s strategy, it will have to do as delivery of a working launch vehicle approaches.
“We are at considerable risk, but there is still work to be done,” Lapsa said. “We will try our best and leave when we are ready.”
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