Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt’s space solar and orbital data center company, Cowboy Space Corporation, has announced a $275 million Series B financing at a $2 billion valuation.

The company, recently rebranded from Aetherflux, now hopes to pursue “vertically integrated orbital data centers and rockets."

The company previously committed to building an AI computing data center constellation called “Galactic Brain."

"The rocket and the data center are a single design from day one. It’s a first-principles departure from the traditional constellation model," Bhatt, founder and CEO of Cowboy Space Corporation, said in a statement. "Our approach starts from a blank sheet, where the unique requirements of data centers in orbit drive the form and function of the overall system."

The company intends to launch its initial satellite later this year to demonstrate space-to-Earth solar power beaming, the initial goal of Aetherflux, which was founded in March 2024 and emerged from stealth the following October with $10m of Bhatt’s own cash.

Cowboy Space will be collaborating with Nvidia to deploy the tech giant’s Space-1 Vera Rubin Modules, specialized for establishing AI infrastructure in low-Earth orbit (LEO).

The latest funding round was led by Index Ventures, with participation from new investors IVP Blossom Capital, and SAIC, with returning financiers Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Construct Capital, NEA, Interlagos, and Baiju Bhatt himself.

According to reporting by the Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter, Cowboy Space aimed to raise between $250m and $300m led by Index Ventures, having raised $50m in its Series A, also led by Index Ventures.

In the past, the company has stressed the bottleneck to AI growth to be in real estate hurdles for the land data centers use, their utilities, construction, and energy usage, something that simply setting up in LEO space allows a company to “bypass”.

Bhatt, who was portrayed in the 2023 film Dumb Money, dramatizing the 2021 GameStop short squeeze, is a self-confessed Magic: The Gathering enthusiast who has fought off rumors for years that he named his space company for the Aetherflux Reservoir card from the 2016 Kaladesh set, presumably now trading those suspicions for allegations of an appreciation for Cowboy Bebop, a critically acclaimed 1998 anime set in a bustling space economy.

“[Baiju’s] lifelong passion for physics makes space the ultimate market opportunity for that ambition,” said Jan Hammer, partner at Index Ventures.