Aetherflux in talks for $2B Series B to build space data centers

Aetherflux, the space startup launched by Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt, is in talks to raise $250 million to $350 million for a Series B round—a stage of venture capital financing. According to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the fundraising, the venture capital firm Index Ventures is leading the deal. If finalized, the funding round would value the startup at $2 billion. This potential injection of capital follows the about $80 million that Aetherflux has collected since its founding in 2024.

The startup is undergoing a significant strategic transition, shifting its focus toward space data centers. This move represents a departure from its initial vision, which focused on transmitting electricity down to Earth using lasers. Aetherflux is not alone in this domain; space companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Starcloud are also developing novel architectures for distributed compute in space. Bhatt explained that the strategic shift was prompted by a realization regarding the power requirements of artificial intelligence. He noted that about a year ago, it became clear that putting computing chips directly into space was highly advantageous compared to terrestrial alternatives. In an interview last week, Bhatt stated: “The light bulb went off about a year ago that, actually, if you wanted to power AI with the technology that we were thinking about, it would be much more advantageous to actually put the chips in space, rather than project the power from space down to a terrestrial data center.”

Despite the shift in its core business model, Aetherflux plans to continue its experimentation in laser power transmission. This testing will be conducted using a satellite bus—the structural and functional platform of a satellite—built by Apex Space. However, the company’s primary milestone is now the launch of its first data center satellite, which is expected in 2027. Through this new direction, Bhatt indicated that the company’s ultimate objective is to build a space-based computing infrastructure that can successfully compete with terrestrial economics.

Why it matters

Aetherflux’s pivot highlights a broader industry trend where space startups are moving beyond power transmission to space-based data centers, targeting the compute demands of AI by leveraging space-based architectures.