Cowboy Space raises $275M to build rockets for orbital AI data centers
Robinhood co-founder pivots from space solar to building rockets to launch 1MW GPU clusters.
Deep Dive
Cowboy Space Corporation, founded by Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt, raised $275M in Series B funding at a $2B valuation to develop its own rockets for launching space-based AI data centers. The company pivoted from space solar after finding insufficient launch capacity. It plans to build data centers into rocket second stages, with each satellite housing just under 800 GPUs and generating 1MW of power. First launch targeted before end of 2028.
Key Points
- Cowboy Space raised $275M Series B at $2B valuation from Index Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and others.
- Each orbital data center satellite will mass 20,000-25,000 kg, generate 1 MW power for ~800 GPUs, and be built into the rocket's second stage.
- First launch targeted before end of 2028; rocket will be slightly more powerful than Falcon 9 but smaller than Starship.
Why It Matters
If successful, Cowboy Space could bypass the launch bottleneck and deliver dedicated orbital AI compute at scale.