Multiple space-based energy startups have secured hundreds of millions in funding in recent months, with Cowboy Space leading the charge by raising $275 million in Series B funding in May 2026. The company, founded by Baiju Bhatt—co-founder of financial trading platform Robinhood—achieved a $2 billion post-money valuation with this round, demonstrating substantial investor confidence in orbital energy technology. This funding surge reflects a broader market shift toward alternative power solutions for energy-intensive industries, particularly data center operators facing unprecedented electricity demands.
The race to harness solar energy in space is no longer theoretical. Cowboy Space, originally launched as Aetherflux in 2024, plans to launch its first proprietary rocket with a one-megawatt data center payload by the end of 2028. Alongside Cowboy Space, competitors like Star Catcher (which raised $65 million for a space-based power grid using laser transmission technology) and Mantis Space (which emerged from stealth with a $10 million seed round in March 2026) are pursuing distinct technical approaches to the same fundamental challenge: generating and transmitting electricity from orbit.
Table of Contents
- Why Investors Are Betting Billions on Orbital Energy
- How Space-Based Solar Energy Works and Why It’s Complex
- The Major Players and Their Funding Strategies
- When Will Orbital Energy Actually Arrive at Scale?
- Regulatory Uncertainty and Technical Risks
- Corporate Partnerships Signal Real Demand
- The Next Five Years and Beyond
- Conclusion
Why Investors Are Betting Billions on Orbital Energy
The funding momentum reflects a real problem facing technology companies. Data centers consumed an estimated 4.5 percent of global electricity in 2024 and the figure is climbing as artificial intelligence workloads proliferate. Major technology companies cannot build data centers fast enough to meet demand, and conventional power infrastructure cannot always support the scale required. Meta Platforms has already signaled its commitment by signing an agreement with Overview Energy to secure power from space-based solar energy infrastructure for its data centers by the end of the decade. This represents a fundamental shift in how investors view the orbital economy.
Five years ago, space-based solar power was considered a distant science fiction concept. Today, it’s attracting capital from some of the world’s largest technology-focused venture firms. Index Ventures, which led Cowboy Space’s Series B, typically invests in companies addressing $100 billion-plus markets. The presence of such serious capital providers suggests the technical roadmap is now credible, not aspirational. What makes this moment distinct is convergence of multiple enabling factors: reusable rocket technology has dramatically reduced launch costs, space infrastructure is more reliable than ever, and the energy crisis facing data centers has become urgent rather than theoretical.
How Space-Based Solar Energy Works and Why It’s Complex
Space-based solar power differs fundamentally from terrestrial solar installations. Satellites in orbit collect sunlight without atmospheric interference or cloud cover, converting it to electricity with theoretical efficiency gains of 20 to 40 percent compared to ground-based systems. The real challenge is transmitting that energy back to Earth. Star Catcher’s approach uses laser technology, while other companies are exploring microwave transmission—both unproven at commercial scale. The technical barriers are substantial. Atmospheric absorption, weather conditions, power loss during transmission, and the need for precise satellite positioning all complicate deployment.
A satellite must maintain exact alignment with ground receivers; any drift degrades power transmission efficiency. Additionally, government regulations around spectrum use, orbital debris, and laser safety are still evolving. The Federal Communications Commission, European Union Space Programme, and other regulatory bodies have not yet established comprehensive frameworks for orbital power transmission, creating uncertainty around licensing and long-term viability. Cost remains another significant constraint. While Cowboy Space and its competitors are well-funded, the true total cost of ownership for orbital energy infrastructure won’t be clear until systems operate commercially. Launch costs have dropped, but building, deploying, and maintaining a fleet of energy-generating satellites requires continuous investment over decades—not quarters.
The Major Players and Their Funding Strategies
Cowboy Space’s $275 million Series B is the largest announced round in orbital energy to date, but it’s not the only significant capital deployment. Star Catcher secured $65 million to build its laser-based space power grid, positioning itself as an alternative to microwave transmission approaches. Mantis Space’s $10 million seed round, though smaller, signals that even early-stage orbital energy companies can attract institutional capital relatively easily. These companies are pursuing different technical architectures intentionally.
Cowboy Space’s pivot toward data center hosting in orbit—rather than pure power transmission—represents a hedging strategy: if energy transmission fails technically or commercially, the company still operates valuable space-based computing infrastructure. Star Catcher’s laser approach aims for higher efficiency and smaller receiver footprints, potentially addressing urban power needs more elegantly than microwave systems. Mantis Space’s strategy remains less public, but the existence of multiple parallel bets suggests the venture ecosystem expects some approaches to succeed and others to fail. The funding environment is also driven by specific corporate partnerships. Meta’s agreement with Overview Energy isn’t just a customer endorsement; it’s validation that a Fortune 500 company believes orbital energy will be cheaper or more reliable than alternatives within a seven-year timeframe.
When Will Orbital Energy Actually Arrive at Scale?
Cowboy Space’s timeline is specific: a first proprietary rocket launch with payload by the end of 2028. That’s roughly two years away and represents a meaningful near-term milestone. However, launching a demonstration system and operating a reliable, profitable orbital power station are vastly different undertakings. A single successful launch proves technical feasibility; sustained profitability requires multiple launches, long satellite lifetime (10+ years with minimal degradation), competitive transmission efficiency, and favorable power purchase agreements. Industry observers differ on realistic timelines.
Optimistic forecasts suggest orbital solar could contribute meaningfully to data center power mixes by 2032 to 2035. More conservative estimates place significant commercial deployment in the 2040s, after multiple generations of satellites, regulatory frameworks, and operational experience accumulate. For investors, this creates a classic startup paradox: the opportunity is enormous (terawatt-scale potential demand) but the path to profitability is long and capital-intensive. Companies are addressing this by combining near-term revenue models with long-term energy ambitions. Cowboy Space’s data center hosting angle generates revenue from day one, even if power beaming remains unproven. This hybrid approach is more realistic than pure orbital energy plays, which depend entirely on solving transmission technology and regulatory frameworks simultaneously.
Regulatory Uncertainty and Technical Risks
Despite significant funding, orbital energy startups face substantial regulatory headwinds. Laser-based power transmission raises safety questions: what happens if a laser deviates from its target? Microwave transmission has less dramatic failure modes but raises concerns about frequency allocation and interference with existing satellite communications. The International Telecommunication Union, national governments, and space agencies are still debating standards. Environmental questions also remain open. Will deploying hundreds of satellites in orbit contribute to space debris? How will atmospheric re-entry of aging satellites be managed? What are the long-term environmental costs of large-scale space industrial infrastructure? These aren’t rhetorical questions—they directly impact regulatory approval and public acceptance.
Unlike data center construction, which faces primarily local opposition, orbital energy requires international coordination and consensus. Technical risks persist as well. Satellite lifespan in orbit depends on minimizing degradation from radiation, thermal cycling, and micrometeorite impacts. A satellite rated for 15-year operation might degrade faster than anticipated, raising the true cost of power transmission. All of these factors are better understood now than five years ago, but they’re not certainties—they’re engineering challenges with real financial consequences if estimates prove optimistic.
Corporate Partnerships Signal Real Demand
Meta’s public commitment to purchasing space-based solar power from Overview Energy is the clearest validation that major technology companies believe orbital energy is worth betting on. Meta doesn’t make such agreements lightly; the company has committed to purchasing renewable energy credits and investing in alternative power infrastructure for years. This agreement suggests Meta’s internal analysis shows space-based solar could be cost-competitive with other alternatives by the time it’s deployed.
Other technology companies are likely evaluating similar partnerships but haven’t announced them yet. Google, Microsoft, and Amazon all face similar data center power constraints. Once one major tech company demonstrates that orbital energy works at cost-competitive rates, others will likely follow rapidly. This creates a potential inflection point: successful commercial operation of even one orbital power station could unlock significant follow-on demand and funding.
The Next Five Years and Beyond
The orbital energy industry will likely see several critical inflection points in the next few years. Cowboy Space’s launch timeline means investors and competitors will have real performance data by late 2028 or 2029. If successful, expect rapid follow-on funding and a wave of new entrants.
If it encounters delays or technical issues, the sector will experience a funding pullback, though likely not a complete collapse given corporate commitments and the long-term demand picture. Regulatory frameworks should crystallize by 2028 to 2029 as well, reducing uncertainty around licensing and operations. This clarity will likely accelerate adoption once it arrives—companies struggle to plan around regulatory unknowns. By 2030 to 2032, orbital energy will likely transition from a venture capital narrative to an operational reality serving some percentage of global data center power demand, assuming no fundamental technical breakthroughs fail to materialize.
Conclusion
Cowboy Space’s $275 million Series B funding, combined with parallel investments from Star Catcher, Mantis Space, and others, reflects genuine investor conviction that orbital energy will eventually address a real problem: powering the exponential growth of data centers and artificial intelligence infrastructure. These companies are not purely speculative bets; they’re backed by founders with proven track records, strategic corporate partnerships, and technical roadmaps that are ambitious but not implausible. The sector’s success hinges on solving three simultaneous problems: technical viability (which is being addressed through engineering), regulatory approval (which is progressing), and commercial economics (which depends on launch costs and satellite reliability).
Investors and corporate partners believe these challenges are surmountable. Whether they’re right will become clear within the next few years as first-generation systems launch and begin generating power at scale. For entrepreneurs, the funding availability suggests this is an active market moment worth paying attention to—even if commercial orbital energy remains years away.