Cowboy Space Corporation, founded by Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt, has announced a significant $275 million Series B funding round, valuing the company at $2 billion. The capital infusion will accelerate the development of the company's ambitious plan to build vertically integrated orbital infrastructure for the artificial intelligence (AI) era, including proprietary rockets and satellites designed to host high-performance compute in Low Earth Orbit. This strategic move aims to address the escalating demand for AI compute that terrestrial infrastructure is struggling to meet.
"Today marks the beginning of a new era. Introducing: Cowboy Space Corporation. We are building orbital infrastructure for the AI era: a fully integrated system of rockets and satellites designed to deliver high-performance compute and optical data transmission directly from Low Earth Orbit," the company stated in a recent tweet.
Index Ventures led the Series B round, with participation from new investors IVP, Blossom Capital, and SAIC, alongside existing backers such as Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Construct Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and NEA. The company, formerly known as Aetherflux, pivoted its focus from space-based solar power to orbital data centers, recognizing the critical need for in-space compute.
Cowboy Space Corporation's unique approach involves designing its launch vehicles so that the upper stage remains in orbit, transforming into a 1-megawatt operational data center. This integrated architecture is intended to optimize power delivery and reduce redundant mass, a departure from traditional satellite deployment models. Baiju Bhatt emphasized that the company is developing its own rocket program due to insufficient launch capacity from existing providers to scale its orbital data center business effectively.
The company plans to launch its first satellite later this year to demonstrate space-to-Earth power beaming capabilities, a foundational component of its long-term infrastructure. Cowboy Space aims for the first launch of its proprietary rocket, which will carry an orbital data center, before the end of 2028. The team comprises industry veterans from leading space companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Astranis, NASA, and Kuiper.
In a strategic partnership, Cowboy Space is collaborating with NVIDIA to deploy NVIDIA Space-1 Vera Rubin Modules, bringing state-of-the-art AI infrastructure directly to the Low Earth Orbit environment. This collaboration underscores the growing interest from the AI hardware ecosystem in extending compute architectures beyond Earth-based facilities. The company's vertical integration strategy positions it to compete in an emerging market alongside established players like SpaceX and Blue Origin, who also have ambitions in orbital data centers.
