Cowboy Space Founder Baiju Bhatt Talks About Building AI Data Centers In Space – ‘We Want To Forge Our Own Path’

• The initial mission will test a technology that collects solar energy in orbit and beams it to Earth, while the second will use similar laser technology to transmit data.
• Bhatt said access to launch capacity is a major obstacle at the moment.
• The startup recently raised $275 million to fund its technology and launch-vehicle development.

Cowboy Space Corp. founder Baiju Bhatt reportedly said that the company is looking to forge its own path in building out data centers in space, even as it is currently working on a rideshare program with SpaceX (SPCX) to launch its first two satellites.

“We do work with SpaceX.. on the launch of our first two satellites to space. So we’re using a ride-share program to do it. But long term we're actually going to build our own launch vehicle. So, we’re going to have our own rockets, our own launchpad,” said Cowboy Space founder Baiju Bhatt in an interview with Yahoo Finance on Thursday. 

The initial mission will test a technology that collects solar energy in orbit and beams it to Earth, while the second will use similar laser technology to transmit data. The startup recently raised $275 million to fund its technology and launch-vehicle development.

Bhatt is also the co-founder of trading platform Robinhood.

Bhatt Highlights Launch Capacity Bottleneck

Bhatt called orbital data centers “arguably the biggest economic opportunity in the history of the space industry.”

“The availability of launch capacity and the ride to space is a major limiting factor. And while companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are building huge rockets and making good progress on that, we want to forge our own path there,” he added.

Why SPCX IPO Was A ‘Profound’ Moment

Bhatt said SpaceX’s public debut was “pretty profound” for the broader space industry because it highlighted the sector’s commercial potential.

“To see sort of after the SpaceX IPO a new generation of institutional investors, retail investors and just the collective consciousness in the world that there is commercial opportunity at scale in the space industry I think is hugely powerful,” he added.

Meanwhile, retail sentiment for SPCX on Stocktwits remained ‘extremely bullish’ over the past 24 hours, amid ‘high’ message volumes.

SPCX shares were down 3.3% at the time of writing, having gained around 4.5% from its IPO price of $135.

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