Kevin Weil, a veteran tech executive known for his experience at Twitter, Meta, Planet Labs and OpenAI, has joined the board of directors of Stoke Space, a Seattle startup building reusable rockets to compete with SpaceX.
Stoke CEO Andy Lapsa told TechCrunch that he met Weil in 2020 when Weil co-founded Stoke and joined Y Combinator’s winter batch. “For me, it’s really simple.” “I started a company with an engineering degree and had no idea how to raise money. I had no idea how Silicon Valley worked. I had no network. Kevin (an early investor in the company through his Scribble Ventures fund with his wife Elizabeth) had all of that background and was able to help me think about fundraising and how to start a company.
The two continued to talk as Lapsa 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 may be the time for Weil to join the board as a director to help the company continue its expansion. Stoke declined to interview Weil and did not respond to TechCrunch’s outreach efforts.
Weil’s past work has focused on digital products and platforms that were clearly not included in Stoke’s roadmap. He most recently led OpenAI’s efforts to accelerate scientific research, leaving the company in April after the program’s work had spread more broadly across Frontiers Labs. He previously served as Chief Product Officer at OpenAI from June 2024 to October 2025.
Weil’s last job raises one obvious question. OpenAI’s Sam Altman was reportedly kicking the tires at Stoke last year and considering investing in his SpaceX competitor. Could Weil be the link between pioneering AI labs and space partners? Lapsa declined to comment on “gossip and rumors” about OpenAI, saying Weil’s role was to focus on Stoke itself.
Stoke is building Nova, a fully reusable rocket that can fly continuously. No one has ever done that before, with SpaceX coming closest with a giant Starship rocket. The technical challenges of reusing rockets, particularly their ability to withstand the extreme heat that comes with re-entering Earth’s atmosphere from space, have deterred even the deepest deep-pocketed space investors. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, where Lapsa once worked, was interested in this approach but didn’t make it a priority.
But now SpaceX’s blockbuster stock market debut (which relies heavily on Elon Musk’s promise that Starship will fly operational missions this year) has proven Lapsa’s foresight. Despite billions of dollars invested in new launch vehicles, there aren’t enough rockets available, and the next company to fly an affordable rocket on a regular basis promises to make huge profits.
“The world is realizing that the launch problem is not yet solved,” Lapsa said. “Back then there was a little bit of an idea of complete and rapid reuse. Now it’s become somewhat more common and people are now seeing the inevitable.”
The idea of building distributed data centers in space, especially to harness solar power and avoid political constraints on Earth, has captured the imagination of some venture capitalists. The biggest obstacle is the cost of getting all the computer chips into orbit. Space data centers “only make sense if there’s absolutely rapid reuse,” Lapsa said. This could be a key differentiator as Stoke’s rocket flight begins.
Military contracts will also be key to the company’s success, and Weil has experience bridging the gap between Silicon Valley and the Department of Defense. He was one of four technology innovators and innovators who joined the U.S. Army Reserve to improve recruitment and collaboration between the Army and industry. And this isn’t the first time he’s been involved in the space business. Weil served as president of Planet Labs, an Earth satellite observation company, for three years until it was listed in 2021.
But whatever Weil can add to the company’s strategy as it finalizes its operational launch vehicle offerings, the company needs to put it into action.
“There is a lot of risk behind us and a lot more work ahead,” Lapsa said. “We’ll give it our best shot, and we’ll go when we’re ready.”
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