Aetherflux Appoints Joe Yaffe as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Legal Officer

Former Managing Partner of Skadden's Palo Alto office joins Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt's space-based energy infrastructure company to lead worldwide operations, legal and regulatory affairs

SAN CARLOS, Calif., Jan. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Aetherflux, the space-based solar power company founded by Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt, today announced the appointment of Joe Yaffe as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Legal Officer (CLO). In this dual executive role, Yaffe will oversee the company's worldwide operations, legal, and regulatory affairs. Yaffe's appointment follows Aetherlux's recent $90M Series A financing and the announcement that it is targeting Q1 2027 for the first launch of its "Galactic Brain" orbital data center project.

"Aetherflux is tackling two of the hardest problems in the modern world: energy abundance and the infrastructure for next-generation compute. The world-class team we are building is critical to our approach," said Baiju Bhatt, Founder and CEO of Aetherflux. "Joe brings a rare combination of operational discipline and strategic judgment, having guided companies through their most complex stages of growth. I am excited to welcome him as a partner to help us navigate the next frontier of the space economy."

Yaffe joins Aetherflux following a distinguished career as the Managing Partner of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP's Palo Alto office. With over three decades of experience, he has advised high-growth technology companies, founders, and boards on critical governance, strategic transactions, and compensation issues. His move to an executive operator role underscores Aetherflux's focus on building the organizational and regulatory infrastructure required to successfully harness and commercialize space-based solar power. Yaffe will be based out of the company's headquarters in San Carlos, California.

"Joining Aetherflux is a rare opportunity to contribute to a mission that will fundamentally change how humanity accesses and uses energy, and is uniquely poised to solve the energy crisis hindering the race to artificial intelligence," said Joe Yaffe, incoming COO and CLO. "Baiju and the team are rewriting the playbook for orbital infrastructure, and I look forward to building the operational backbone that turns this vision into a reality."

Aetherflux recently announced a Q1 2027 target for its first orbital data center satellite, which leverages solar power in space to address the massive energy needs for artificial intelligence. The project, dubbed "Galactic Brain", offers a bypass to the current five-to-eight-year time horizon for data centers to be built on Earth. This builds upon the company's existing work developing space-solar satellites for beaming power to contested environments. In 2026, the company plans to launch its first satellite to wirelessly transmit energy from low Earth orbit to Earth using lasers.

About Aetherflux
Aetherflux is revolutionizing energy distribution by harvesting solar power in space and beaming it to Earth via infrared lasers. Founded in 2024 by Baiju Bhatt, the company is building a constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to provide resilient, scalable power to remote or contested environments around the world.. Backed by Index Ventures, NEA, and other leading investors, Aetherflux is also pioneering the "Galactic Brain," an orbital compute network powered by space solar to support the growing energy demands of artificial intelligence.

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SOURCE Aetherflux