Aetherflux Reportedly Raising Series B At $2 Billion Valuation

In Brief

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

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

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

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

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

It won’t beryllium easy.

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