Cowboy Space Corporation, a startup founded by Baiju Bhatt, one of the co-founders of the Robinhood trading platform, has raised $275 million to develop its own rockets and orbital data centers for artificial intelligence (AI). Following the Series B funding round, the company is valued at $2 billion. The main goal of the project is to place AI computing power directly into Earth's orbit. This is reported by Ixbt.com .
According to Bhatt, the demand for AI is growing so rapidly that terrestrial infrastructure is facing limitations in power supply and cooling systems. However, the company encountered an unexpected problem: there are not enough rockets on the market to launch orbital platforms into space. SpaceX's Starship or Blue Origin's New Glenn rockets are still in the testing phase or have fully booked flight schedules.
For this reason, Cowboy Space decided to create its own rocket system. Founded in 2024 under the name Aetherflux, the startup initially planned to harvest solar energy in space and transmit it to Earth. Later, the team shifted to using this energy to power AI computations directly in orbit. As a result, the idea of a unique design where data centers are integrated into the second stage of the rocket emerged.
The company plans to launch platforms weighing 20-25 thousand tons into orbit. Each platform can provide 1 megawatt of power and support approximately 800 graphics accelerators. To implement the project, the startup hired former SpaceX and Blue Origin engineers, including engine specialist Warren Lamont and flight manager Tyler Green.
Bhatt believes that the scarcity of Earth's resources will further increase interest in moving data centers to space in the future. Cowboy Space aims to conduct its first flight by the end of 2028. Although this is a very complex task, the company believes the AI market is large enough to accommodate several space players.
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