Cowboy Space Corporation has raised $275 million [1] in Series B funding to launch AI-powered data centers into low-Earth orbit.
Moving computing infrastructure into space could mitigate the growing energy crisis on Earth. By utilizing orbital environments, the company aims to provide greener, high-performance computing options for artificial intelligence [1, 4].
Baiju Bhatt, the co-founder of Robinhood and CEO of Cowboy Space, is leading the venture. The company, formerly known as Aetherflux, is pursuing a vertically integrated strategy. This involves building its own rockets alongside the satellite data-center payloads required for the mission [1, 2].
"Our goal is to launch the first AI-powered data center in orbit by the end of 2026," Bhatt said [1].
The funding round closed this month, pushing the company's valuation to $2 billion [1, 3]. The investment includes support from prominent figures in the venture capital space. "Wow, I'm betting on Cowboy Space," Tim Draper said [3].
The company plans its first orbital launch for later in 2026 [2]. This timeline reflects an aggressive push to transition AI workloads from terrestrial grids to space-based hardware.
Cowboy Space is headquartered in the U.S. and focuses on the intersection of aerospace engineering, and cloud computing. The shift to orbit is intended to bypass the physical and environmental constraints of land-based data centers, such as cooling requirements and power grid limitations [1, 4].
“"Our goal is to launch the first AI-powered data center in orbit by the end of 2026."”
The move toward orbital data centers represents a strategic pivot in AI infrastructure. As terrestrial power grids struggle to keep pace with the electricity demands of large language models, space offers a potential solution for energy sourcing and thermal management. If Cowboy Space successfully integrates rocket production with data center deployment, it could establish a new precedent for 'off-planet' industrialization to sustain Earth's digital growth.
