- Baiju Bhatt, who co-founded Robinhood Markets after two failed startups, launched Cowboy Space Corp. (originally called Aetherflux) in 2024 to build solar-powered data centers in space.
- Cowboy Space was recently valued at $2 billion and has grown to approximately 50 employees, according to the company.
- Spending on data centers and other AI infrastructure by four major tech firms is expected to top $670 billion this year, a larger share of the economy than the railroad expansion of the 1850s.
- Bhatt purchased a red Ferrari F40, valued at roughly $2.9 million, to celebrate Robinhood’s IPO, and now maintains a collection of more than 30 cars with a full-time mechanic.
- The S&P 500 stood at 7,500.58 on June 21, 2026, according to FRED data.
Baiju Bhatt, who co-founded Robinhood Markets and helped turn stock trading into a smartphone habit for millions of first-time investors, is placing his next bet hundreds of miles above the Earth. Bhatt’s new venture, Cowboy Space Corp., aims to build solar-powered data centers in orbit, betting that the explosion in artificial intelligence computing demand will make space-based processing economically viable.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal’s Gunjan Banerji, Bhatt traced his path from a $31,000 used BMW he bought in his 20s — enlisting his father to help negotiate — to a garage now housing more than 30 cars, including a red Ferrari F40 he said he bought for roughly $2.9 million to mark Robinhood’s IPO. “Cars are like the archetype of human industrial design,” Bhatt said. “How do you make the design of the thing, the form and the function, how can you make them sort of synonymous?”
The design philosophy that produced Robinhood’s famously frictionless trading app, which helped pull a generation of amateur investors into the stock market and drove the meme-stock mania of 2021, is now being applied to the space industry. Bhatt said he began weighing his next moves during the Covid-19 pandemic while building a race car in his garage. He stepped down as co-CEO of Robinhood in 2020 and, in 2024, launched Cowboy Space Corp., then known as Aetherflux.
The company was recently valued at $2 billion and has grown to around 50 employees, according to Bhatt.
Cowboy Space is entering a market that has been supercharged by the AI boom. Spending on data centers and other AI infrastructure by just four major technology companies this year is expected to exceed $670 billion, according to the Journal — larger as a share of the economy than the railroad expansion of the 1850s. Venture investors are pouring money into space startups, and SpaceX shares jumped roughly 37% within days after the company’s recent IPO, as MSI reported. Bhatt said he launched the venture to fulfill a childhood dream, adding that his Robinhood riches have helped him curate his car collection and maintain a full-time mechanic to care for the vehicles.
Bhatt told the Journal he overcame more than 70 rejections before Robinhood succeeded. He also described writing what he called “friend-checks” to buddies building their own startups and balancing the demands of fatherhood with running a business. The S&P 500 stood at 7,500.58 on the day of the interview, according to FRED data.