Cowboy Space raises $275M to build orbital data centers powered by solar energy

Cowboy Space Corporation raised $275 million in Series B funding at a $2 billion valuation to build orbital AI data centers, marking a major expansion for the space infrastructure company founded by Robinhood co founder Baiju Bhatt.

The round was led by Index Ventures, with participation from new investors IVP, Blossom Capital, and SAIC, alongside existing backers Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Construct Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, Interlagos, and Bhatt.

The company, founded in 2024 and previously known as Aetherflux, also unveiled its new name and brand.  

Cowboy Space is developing a vertically integrated system to power and run AI compute in orbit. The company is building Low Earth Orbit satellites that use solar energy, a purpose built launch vehicle to deliver them, and compute payloads designed for the space environment.  

The core idea is to make the rocket’s upper stage and data center payload part of the same vehicle. Instead of launching a separate payload and discarding the upper stage, Cowboy plans for each upper stage to remain in orbit and become a 1 megawatt data center.  

Cowboy is also working with NVIDIA to deploy NVIDIA Space 1 Vera Rubin Modules, bringing advanced AI hardware into the Low Earth Orbit environment. The company said its approach is designed to reduce redundant mass and improve the amount of power and compute delivered to orbit.  

Bhatt said Cowboy’s design starts from the unique requirements of orbital data centers rather than adapting terrestrial systems for space. He described the rocket and data center as a single design from day one, calling it a first principles departure from the traditional constellation model.  

The raise comes as AI demand continues to strain terrestrial power and data center capacity. Index Ventures partner Jan Hammer said Cowboy is building as demand for AI compute and energy begins to outstrip what existing infrastructure can support.  

Cowboy plans to launch its first satellite later this year to demonstrate space to Earth power beaming. The company’s team includes engineers from SpaceX, Astranis, NASA, Kuiper, and NVIDIA.  

The company is entering a technically difficult but increasingly crowded race to move AI infrastructure beyond Earth. The Wall Street Journal reported in March that Aetherflux was raising new financing at a $2 billion valuation and that rivals including SpaceX and Blue Origin were also exploring orbital AI data centers.