Cowboy Space Raises $275M To Put AI Data Centers In Orbit; But First Needs Rockets

If you're wondering why everyone is talking about data centers in space, you're about to be hit by more data in this space.

Cowboy Space Corporation has raised $275 million in a Series B round at a $2 billion post-money valuation, as it looks to build orbital data centers powered by space-based solar energy. The twist? It also plans to build the rockets needed to launch them.
 

TL;DR

 

• Cowboy Space raised $275 million at a $2 billion valuation.
• The startup wants to build data centers in space for AI compute workloads.
• It plans to develop its own rocket program, with a first launch expected before the end of 2028.
• The company says limited launch capacity is pushing it to bring rockets in-house.

 

Cowboy Space Raises $275 Million To Build AI Data Centers In Space

The AI boom has pushed data center demand to extreme levels, and Cowboy Space Corporation believes the next major compute frontier could be above Earth.

The company announced a $275 million Series B round led by Index Ventures, with participation from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Construct Capital, IVP, and SAIC. The funding values Cowboy Space at $2 billion post-money, giving the startup fresh capital to pursue one of the more ambitious infrastructure bets in the AI race.

The company had previously raised $80 million from investors including Index Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and New Enterprise Associates.

Founded by Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt, Cowboy Space began in 2024 under the name Aetherflux. Its original plan was to collect solar energy in space and beam it down to Earth.

However, the idea evolved after the company saw an opportunity to use that electricity directly in orbit, powering data centers where energy and cooling constraints could look very different from Earth-based facilities.
 

 

Why Cowboy Space Is Building Its Own Rocket Program

The biggest obstacle is not only building orbital data centers, but getting them into space at scale.

Most space data center concepts depend on launch vehicles such as SpaceX’s Starship or Blue Origin’s New Glenn.

Yet commercial availability, cost, and capacity remain major uncertainties. Some projects are therefore looking toward the mid-2030s, while others are starting with smaller edge-processing tasks for space-based sensors.

Cowboy Space wants a more direct path.

“We’re standing up our own rocket program,” Bhatt said, adding that he expects the company’s first launch before the end of 2028.

Bhatt said he explored options with multiple launch providers, but could not find enough capacity to support a scaled orbital data center business with unit economics that could compete against terrestrial data centers.

"There's a lot of new rockets that are coming online, but as we look three, four years out, it's still very, very scarce, and I think that you're going to see a lot of the first-party rocket providers actually specialize into their own payloads," Bhatt said.
 

Cowboy Space’s Rocket Plan Could Challenge SpaceX And Blue Origin

Building rockets is notoriously difficult, expensive, and risky. Only a small group of Western private players, including SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and Arianespace, consistently launch commercial rockets, while others have spent years trying to move vehicles from development into regular operations.

Cowboy Space’s strategy would also put it closer to direct competition with SpaceX and Blue Origin.

Still, Bhatt believes the opportunity is large enough for multiple companies. “The prize here, and the size of this market, is big enough that there's room for many players to succeed,” he said. “I see the demand for AI getting more and more acute, and I see the options on Earth getting more and more limited.”
 

 

How Cowboy Space Plans To Build Orbital Data Centers

Cowboy Space’s design centers on building data centers directly into the second stage of its rocket, rather than launching them as separate payloads. The company expects each satellite to weigh 20,000 to 25,000 kilograms and generate 1 MW of power for just under 800 onboard GPUs.

That would require a rocket more powerful than SpaceX’s Falcon 9, though smaller than Starship. Bhatt eventually expects the booster to be reusable.

The startup has hired space industry veterans, including former Blue Origin propulsion engineer Warren Lamont and former SpaceX launch director Tyler Grinnell. It also plans to build its own rocket engine, while still working through major needs such as testing, manufacturing, and launch facilities.

For now, Cowboy Space is turning a shortage of rockets into the reason for its next act. Its new name reflects that shift, as the company leans into a mission to “power humanity from the high frontier.”