Aetherflux Taps Legal Titan for Orbital Energy & AI Dominance

SAN CARLOS, CA – January 09, 2026 – Aetherflux, the ambitious space-based energy company founded by Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt, has made a pivotal executive move, appointing veteran Silicon Valley lawyer Joe Yaffe as its Chief Operating Officer and Chief Legal Officer. The high-profile hire signals a strategic shift for the startup as it prepares to transition from fundraising and research into the complex operational and regulatory reality of building energy and computing infrastructure in Earth's orbit.

Yaffe, the former Managing Partner of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP's Palo Alto office, joins Aetherflux on the heels of a major financing round and as the company barrels toward aggressive launch targets for its pioneering technology. His dual role overseeing global operations and legal affairs underscores the immense challenges ahead for a company aiming to beam solar power from space and build orbital data centers to fuel the artificial intelligence boom.

From Boardroom Counsel to Space Operator

Joe Yaffe’s move from one of the world's most powerful law firms to an executive role at a two-year-old startup is a significant indicator of Aetherflux's maturation. With over three decades at Skadden, Yaffe built a reputation advising the founders and boards of high-growth technology companies on their most critical junctures, from governance and strategic M&A to complex compensation issues. His decision to join Aetherflux is a vote of confidence in the venture's potential and a clear sign that the company is building the corporate scaffolding needed for its audacious mission.

The appointment is a classic Silicon Valley play: pair a visionary technical founder with a seasoned operational and legal expert to navigate the treacherous path from concept to commercialization. Aetherflux is tackling not just technological frontiers but also uncharted regulatory territory, requiring a leader adept at building frameworks where none currently exist.

"Aetherflux is tackling two of the hardest problems in the modern world: energy abundance and the infrastructure for next-generation compute," said Baiju Bhatt, Founder and CEO of Aetherflux, in a statement. "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's role will be crucial as Aetherflux prepares for its first planned technology demonstration in 2026: launching a satellite to wirelessly transmit one kilowatt of power from low Earth orbit to a ground station using lasers. Success would be a major milestone for the entire space-based solar power sector.

Powering the 'Galactic Brain'

At the heart of Aetherflux's mission is a solution to two interconnected crises: the search for abundant, clean energy and the insatiable power demands of artificial intelligence. The company's primary goal is to harvest solar energy in space—where sunlight is constant and unfiltered by atmosphere—and beam it to Earth via a constellation of satellites using infrared lasers. This could provide resilient power to remote locations, disaster zones, and contested military environments, a potential that has already attracted funding interest from the U.S. Department of Defense.

More ambitiously, Aetherflux is developing what it calls the "Galactic Brain," an orbital data center network powered directly by its space-solar technology. This project aims to bypass the massive energy consumption and lengthy construction timelines of terrestrial data centers, which can take five to eight years to build and are increasingly straining power grids worldwide. By placing GPU-class compute capacity in orbit, Aetherflux hopes to offer a scalable, rapidly deployable solution for the AI industry.

"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," Yaffe stated. "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."

The company has set a target of Q1 2027 for the first launch of its "Galactic Brain" project, an aggressive timeline that highlights the urgency it sees in addressing the AI compute bottleneck.

A Crowded and Unregulated Cosmos

While Aetherflux’s vision is bold, it is not alone. The concept of space-based solar power (SBSP) has been gaining momentum globally, with research initiatives underway in China, Europe, and at institutions like Caltech, which successfully demonstrated microwave power beaming in 2023. The orbital data center space is also heating up, with startups like Starcloud and OrbitsEdge raising funds to put compute hardware in the sky.

However, Aetherflux's approach of using infrared lasers from Low Earth Orbit distinguishes it from many competitors who favor microwave transmission or geostationary orbits. The company claims this will allow for higher power density and smaller, more flexible ground receivers.

The greatest challenges, however, may not be technical but regulatory. The deployment of large satellite constellations for power transmission and computing will force international bodies to confront a host of complex legal questions. These include the allocation of radio frequency spectrum by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the mitigation of orbital debris, and establishing safety protocols and liability frameworks for high-intensity energy beams. Yaffe’s appointment as Chief Legal Officer is a direct acknowledgment of the need to proactively shape and navigate this nascent legal landscape to avoid getting grounded by bureaucracy.

Bhatt's Second Act and High-Stakes Backing

The driving force behind this venture is Baiju Bhatt, who is charting a new course after co-founding the fintech disruptor Robinhood. His transition from democratizing finance to tackling fundamental energy and computing infrastructure places him in the growing cohort of tech billionaires pursuing "deep tech" moonshots. Bhatt personally invested the initial $10 million to launch Aetherflux in 2024.

His vision quickly attracted a syndicate of top-tier investors. In April 2025, the company announced a $50 million Series A round co-led by Index Ventures and Interlagos, a firm founded by former SpaceX leadership. The round also included backing from New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Andreessen Horowitz, and Bill Gates's Breakthrough Energy Ventures, among others. The company's latest announcement mentioned the hire followed a "$90M Series A financing," suggesting either a significant, unannounced extension to that round or that the total capital raised has now reached that figure.

This substantial financial backing, combined with the strategic recruitment of an operational heavyweight like Yaffe, equips Aetherflux with the capital and the leadership to pursue its capital-intensive, long-term vision. The company is making a high-stakes bet that the future of energy and artificial intelligence lies not on Earth, but in the vacuum of space just above it.