Aetherflux reportedly raising Series B at $2 billion valuation

In Brief

Aetherflux, the abstraction star powerfulness startup launched by Robinhood laminitis Baiju Bhatt, is successful talks to rise $250 cardinal to $350 cardinal for a Series B circular that would worth the institution astatine $2 billion.

The fundraising was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which said that Index Ventures is starring the deal. Aetherflux has collected astir $80 cardinal since its founding successful 2024. Aetherflux declined to comment.

Aetherflux has shifted absorption successful caller months arsenic it pushed its power-generating exertion toward abstraction information centers, deemphasizing the transmission of energy to the Earth with lasers that was its starting vision. Space companies similar SpaceX, Blue Origin, Starcloud, and others are present processing caller architectures for distributed compute successful space.

“Let the grounds amusement we ne'er lifted our pivot ft — it wasn’t a travel,” Bhatt joked successful an interrogation with TechCrunch past week. “The airy bulb went disconnected astir a twelvemonth agone that, actually, if you wanted to powerfulness AI with the exertion that we were reasoning about, it would beryllium overmuch much advantageous to really enactment the chips successful space, alternatively than task the powerfulness from abstraction down to a terrestrial information center.”

While the institution plans to proceed its experimentation successful laser powerfulness transmission connected a outer autobus built by Apex Space, the company’s archetypal information halfway outer is expected successful 2027. “Our extremity is to physique thing that competes with terrestrial economics,” Bhatt said.

It won’t beryllium easy.

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