Mach33 analysts have released a new breakdown of the space computing economy. The key insight is that by 2030, deploying power and cooling in High Earth Orbit (HEO) will become more cost-effective than building similar capacity on Earth. The financial model confirms that space is starting to win the race for cheap energy.
The Math of the Space Watt
Researchers compared infrastructure capital expenditures: solar arrays, grids, and cooling systems. They excluded chips from the calculation, assuming their price is the same everywhere.
On Earth, providing a watt of power costs an average of $12. In space, the cost hits parity with Earth once cargo delivery drops to $1000 per kg. Analysts note that with the arrival of Starship and the introduction of refueling, this is a matter of the near future. As launch costs slide further, the figures become even more interesting: the price of a space watt drops to $6-9. This is 25-50% cheaper than any terrestrial solution.
The model revealed a counterintuitive conclusion: the chase for minimum weight is no longer necessary. When a launch costs less than $100 per kg, hardware production costs matter more than mass. Standard, modified satellites based on the Starlink architecture emerge as the most economic solution for scaling capacity.
Elon Musk is betting on scalability. On Earth, energy faces land shortages and grid limitations, while orbit offers a practically infinite resource of solar generation. The Mach33 report shows that shifting energy-intensive computing to space will be justified very soon.
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