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▶ 27:10 · Space Economy · Low Earth orbit emerging as platform for energy and compute verticals beyond imaging and defense
episode briefing
Kleiner Perkins

Data Centers in Orbit by 2028: Baiju Bhatt on His Plans After Robinhood

2026-08-24 · 6 company · 15 thematic
sentiment
3 bull0 bear3 neu
speakers
baiju bhatt

Physics and math background from Stanford; co-founded Robinhood in 2012 and scaled it to a public company over 14 years; left to pursue lifelong ambition of building a space company, self-funding the initial $10M+ seed for Cowboy Space (formerly Aetherlex) to develop orbital data centers using rocket upper stages as compute platforms.

episode shorts · 2

Why Baiju Bhatt Is Betting on Space

How Two Stanford Kids Beat Wall Street

now playing · Space Economy
Space-Based Computetailwindscore 9/10baiju bhatt
Orbital data centers using rocket stages as heat sinks target 2028 launch
Cowboy Space integrates launch vehicle upper stages as data center chassis and radiators, eliminating satellite bus mass and power-beaming losses to achieve lower $/GPU-hour than terrestria…
Space-Based Computetailwindscore 9/10baiju bhatt
Orbital data centers by 2028: rocket upper stage becomes the server rack
Integrating the rocket's upper stage as the data center — using its structure for heat dissipation, solar arrays for continuous power, and eliminating satellite bus and power-beaming losses…
Space Economytailwindscore 8/10baiju bhatt
LEO emerges as platform for energy and compute verticals beyond imaging and defense
Low Earth orbit's continuous solar illumination makes it a natural platform for power generation and compute; space solar plus compute (minus beaming) unlocks commercial verticals analogous…
Space Economytailwindscore 7/10baiju bhatt
Low Earth orbit emerging as a commercial platform for energy-intensive industries beyond communications
LEO is transitioning from a domain for imaging and communications to a platform for native energy generation and compute, with space solar power plus compute representing the next major ver…
Space Economytailwindscore 8/10baiju bhatt
Low Earth orbit emerging as commercial platform for energy-intensive verticals
LEO offers continuous solar illumination (multiples of ground output) and vacuum heat rejection, making it a natural platform for power generation and compute — the next commercial vertical…
Space Economytailwindscore 8/10baiju bhatt
Low Earth orbit emerging as platform for energy and compute verticals beyond imaging and defense
Just as mobile became a platform for native apps, LEO will host native commercial verticals. Space solar panels generate 3-5x terrestrial output due to near-continuous illumination, making…
Energy & Power Generationtailwindscore 7/10baiju bhatt
Space solar power economics pivot from beaming to in-orbit compute to avoid transmission losses
Beaming power from orbit to Earth suffers conversion and transmission losses (electrical→optical→electrical). Using that power in orbit for compute eliminates those losses and adds margin b…
Grid & Power Infrastructuretailwindscore 7/10baiju bhatt
Space solar power economics pivot from beaming to in-orbit compute to avoid conversion losses
Beaming power to Earth incurs ~50% transmission/conversion losses; using that power in orbit for compute captures full output, improving unit economics enough to compete with terrestrial da…
Space-Based Computetailwindscore 9/10baiju bhatt
Orbital data centers avoid transmission losses and leverage continuous solar for AI compute economics
Placing data centers in low Earth orbit eliminates the 50%+ energy loss from beaming space solar power to Earth, while continuous sunlight on orbit multiplies solar panel output 3-5x versus…
Advanced Manufacturingtailwindscore 7/10baiju bhatt
Vertical integration of launch required to control unit economics for space data centers
Insufficient global launch capacity and SpaceX prioritizing Starlink forces Cowboy Space to build its own 'Honda Civic' rocket engine and launch pads, mirroring Robinhood's vertical integra…
Data Center Infrastructuretailwindscore 8/10baiju bhatt
Vertical integration of launch, satellite, and compute layers is required to control unit economics
Just as Robinhood vertically integrated to control financial product economics, orbital compute requires owning the full stack — rocket, thermal architecture, and compute hardware — to achi…
Vertical Integrationtailwindscore 7/10baiju bhatt
Controlling unit economics forces full-stack rocket and data center integration
To achieve competitive $/GPU-hour from orbit, Cowboy Space must vertically integrate launch, satellite, and data center layers. Existing launch market lacks capacity and cost structure; buy…
AI Infrastructuretailwindscore 8/10baiju bhatt
Structural compute shortage will persist as AI agents scale to billions of users
Every person having background AI agents implies compute demand far exceeding current capacity; Baiju observes Claude Code and Gemini already timing out, signaling sustained undersupply.
AI Infrastructuretailwindscore 8/10baiju bhatt
Global AI agent demand will require compute scale that terrestrial power grids cannot support
If billions of users deploy persistent AI agents for daily tasks, the resulting compute demand will far exceed what terrestrial data center build-outs can support given power, land, and per…
AI Infrastructuretailwindscore 8/10baiju bhatt
Compute scarcity drives orbital data center opportunity; AI agents will require massive sustained compute
Global AI compute demand is outpacing terrestrial build-out (Claude Code, OpenAI, Gemini all timing out). Billions of AI agents working continuously will require unprecedented compute capac…