Investing.com -- Cowboy Space Corp., a space startup founded by Robinhood Markets Inc. co-founder Baiju Bhatt, raised $275 million in a Series B funding round that valued the company at $2 billion, the company said Monday.

Index Ventures led the funding round, with participation from new investors including Blossom Capital and existing investors such as Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz.

The San Carlos, California-based company, which was founded in 2024 and previously operated under the name Aetherflux, announced plans to build data centers in orbit using its own rockets. The strategy would put Cowboy Space in competition with companies such as Elon Musk's SpaceX.

The company is targeting 2028 for its first rocket launch. "The upper stage itself becomes the satellite in orbit," Bhatt said in an interview.

Bhatt said the company decided to build its own rockets due to limited launch capacity. "We're not going to have control of our destiny" without building its own rockets, he said.

The announcement represents a shift from the company's original focus on building satellites to deliver space-based solar energy to Earth. Cowboy Space had previously announced plans to launch a satellite aboard a SpaceX rocket.

Bhatt said the company still plans to proceed with that launch later this year.