Cowboy Space: Building Private Rockets to Put AI in Orbit

The world has an insatiable hunger for AI, and that hunger is moving into the stars. But there is a major bottleneck. We simply do not have enough rockets to carry the heavy data centers needed for space-based AI into orbit. Space-based data centers are the next big frontier because they solve the massive cooling and energy problems we face on Earth. However, current launch costs are way too high.

Baiju Bhatt, the co-founder of the stock platform Robinhood, wants to fix this. He launched a new startup originally called Aetherflux, now renamed Cowboy Space Corporation. The company just raised $275 million in new funding to build its own fleet of rockets. This money gives the company a $2 billion valuation. Big investors like Index Ventures, Construct Capital, and even SAIC are betting that Bhatt can do for space data what he did for retail trading.

Why Data Centers Need Rockets

Right now, most people are waiting for SpaceX to finish its Starship rocket to make space travel cheap. But waiting for one company is a bad business plan. Other projects, like Google’s Suncatcher, are not expected to start until the 2030s. Cowboy Space wants to move much faster. Bhatt expects his first rocket to launch by the end of 2028.

Originally, the company wanted to build solar panels in space and beam power down to Earth. They quickly realized that the real money is in moving the data centers to the power source instead of moving the power to the data centers. To make this work, they need a way to get their hardware into orbit without paying a fortune to a middleman.

Building the Rocket In-House

Bhatt searched for a rocket company that could launch his satellites, but he found that everyone was already booked or too expensive. He decided the only logical path was to build the rockets himself. This puts Cowboy Space in direct competition with giants like SpaceX and Blue Origin. While this sounds crazy, Bhatt has hired veterans from SpaceX and Blue Origin to lead the way.

Cowboy Space is designing a rocket specifically for this one job. Most rockets are built to carry all kinds of stuff, which makes them complex and heavy. Bhatt’s rocket will be custom-built to carry a satellite that has a mass of 20,000 kilograms and generates 1 megawatt of power. This satellite will hold about 800 high-end AI GPUs. By focusing on just this one payload, the team can simplify the design and lower the cost of every launch.

The New Vision for the Future

The company is currently building the facilities it needs to test and manufacture its own engines. Bhatt is lean and mean with his strategy. He knows that the demand for AI is only going up, and Earth is running out of places to put massive, power-hungry server farms. Putting them in space where solar energy is constant just makes sense.

Bhatt even leaned into the new name by wearing a cowboy hat to his latest press events. He says the name Cowboy Space reflects his mission to “power humanity from the high frontier.” It is a bold move, but in the world of space and AI, being bold is the only way to win. If he succeeds, the next time you ask an AI a question, the answer might come from a rocket launched by a guy in a Stetson.