WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): Harvesting solar power from space – that’s what the new startup Aetherflux claims it can achieve.
Aetherflux, the space-based solar startup founded by the billionaire co-founder of stock trading juggernaut Robinhood, Baiju Bhatt, is targeting outer space to explore and unlock solar power in new ways.
The news of Aetherflux’s launch comes on Wednesday, October 9, as Bhatt plans to build a network of solar power stations in orbit to transmit energy to Earth.
“What we’re doing at Aetherflux is a different approach of space solar power,” Bhatt said in a recent interview. “As we like to say, it is not your grandpa’s space solar power approach.”
Bhatt founded Aetherflux late last year after his Robinhood exit, shifting his focus from the trading platform to the space industry. The Stanford graduate told TechCrunch that he was always interested in space; along with his advanced STEM degrees, Bhatt’s father worked for NASA at Langley Air Force Base, all of which has led to his brewing interest in space ventures.
Aetherflux is working towards its first mission now, with the aim of sending up a demonstration spacecraft in late 2025 or early 2026. The spacecraft is being built by the satellite bus manufacturer Apex, a Los Angeles-based startup, where Bhatt serves as an investor himself.
Bhatt, who has a net worth of $1.7 billion according to Forbes, is self-funding Aetherflux. He has already invested “millions” of his own capital into the venture and is committed to funding through the first demonstration mission, according to a spokesperson.
This is not the first time Bhatt has invested in a space startup – last month, the billionaire took part in a $6.5 million seed round for space-based solar startup Reflect Orbital, along with investors that included Sequoia Capital and Starship Venture.
So far, Aetherflux’s foundational concept of space-based solar power remains theoretical but “as we make it a reality, that’s when the comparisons [to terrestrial solar] are going to be a lot more real,” the billionaire CEO said.
In a LinkedIn post titled “Allow me to re-introduce myself…” and posted on Wednesday, Bhatt said he had been “passionate about space since childhood, inspired by” his dad’s “career as a scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center.”
He wrote, “As a kid, I remember reading Black Holes and Time Warps, talking physics with my Dad on long drives, and imagining science fiction that could happen in the real world. All of this led me to Stanford, where I earned my bachelor’s in physics and Master’s in Mathematics. I thought I was going to be a physicist or mathematician, but as I left college in 2008, the financial crisis was in full swing and pulled me in.”
Bhatt recalled how, after college, he and his friend moved to New York City to start a finance company. The early years were challenging, and their first companies didn’t gain traction. Then, they conceived the idea for Robinhood. With a mission to democratize finance for all, the company they founded pioneered zero-commission trading, helping millions of people access the capital markets. Today, Robinhood is publicly traded, he wrote.
“Our mission is to commercialize space solar power,” Bhatt said. “If we succeed, we unlock a renewable energy source for humanity that can be delivered virtually anywhere… Space solar power can revolutionize energy distribution, especially where delivering power is expensive, challenging, or dangerous. Powering hard-to-reach places like remote military bases, islands, or areas hit by disasters unlocks new capabilities and advantages for our country. Long term, we want to deliver renewable and affordable energy, day and night, to power commercial or civilian use cases.”