Cowboy Space Corporation has announced a $275 million Series B funding round, aiming to address the scarcity of rockets needed for space-based data centers. CEO Baiju Bhatt, who founded Cowboy Space in 2024, has confirmed the company plans to launch its first rocket by the end of 2028.
Key Challenges in Space Data Centers
The demand for AI compute power is pushing data center entrepreneurs towards space, but the lack of available and affordable rockets is a significant hurdle. SpaceX's Starship and Blue Origin's New Glenn have faced setbacks, delaying commercial availability.
Cowboy Space's Ambitious Plans
Bhatt, also a co-founder of Robinhood, initially launched the startup under the name Aetherflux. It aimed to gather solar energy in space and beam it to Earth. However, the company pivoted to focus on using the energy for data centers in orbit. This shift necessitated Cowboy Space's own rocket program.
A Competitive Landscape
Cowboy Space enters a competitive market dominated by players like SpaceX and Blue Origin. To carve out a niche, Cowboy Space plans to integrate data centers into the second stage of its rockets—a design reminiscent of early satellite launches like Explorer 1.
The company has recruited experienced professionals like Warren Lamont from Blue Origin and Tyler Grinnell from SpaceX, and plans to develop its own rocket engine. Bhatt emphasizes the potential market size and the increasing demand for AI as motivating factors.
Looking Ahead
Bhatt notes that while developing a rocket in-house is challenging, it aligns with the company's goal of simplifying design for its unique mission. Cowboy Space's planned data centers will weigh 20,000 to 25,000 kilograms, generating 1 MW of power for around 800 GPUs. This would make Cowboy Space's rocket more powerful than SpaceX's Falcon 9, but not as large as the under-development Starship.
The company's rebranding underscores its ambition to "power humanity from the high frontier," with Bhatt humorously noting it also allows him to wear a cowboy hat.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/11/there-arent-enough-rockets-for-space-data-centers-cowboy-space-raised-275-million-to-build-them/
