The Bid Sep 25, 2026 24m · 11m saved
With Reid Menge, Portfolio Manager in BlackRock's Fundamental Equity Group
Putting a kilogram into orbit used to cost about $54,000. Reid Menge said SpaceX's Falcon 9 has brought that to about $3,000, and that the promise of its Starship rocket is about $200.
Most people hear the word space and think of moon landings. An investor, he said, probably gives you a blank stare. He expects that to change as space moves from exploration and satellites to commercial businesses, including AI data centers in orbit.
"It's two C's and a D. Cost, capability, and demand."
Reid Menge, portfolio manager in BlackRock's Fundamental Equity Group, on The Bid, BlackRock's own podcast. He has been looking at space companies for about a decade, and he has heard executives play down how difficult rockets are, one of them from a company that never reached orbit.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it. 24 minutes of audio, 13 minutes of reading.
Here are the 10 insights that matter.
Key Takeaways
SpaceX's IPO this past summer is what put space on investors' radar, Menge said
Launch costs fell from about $54,000 a kilogram to about $3,000, and Starship's promise is about $200
A communications satellite once cost about $500 million; a toaster-sized one now costs about $100,000
Orbit solves the power, land, water and permitting problems that slow data centers on Earth
He put the cost of 1 gigawatt of AI compute at about $50 billion, $20 billion of it outside the chips and servers
SpaceX is targeting Q4 2027 for the first demonstration of an AI server running in space
Start with the picks and shovels: semiconductors, communications equipment, lasers, rocket parts and heat-resistant materials
The risks are enormous, he said, because the world's best-funded companies still blow up rockets on the launchpad
Two things to watch to 2036: how fast launch costs fall, and whether new AI compute is built in Texas or in orbit
1. SpaceX's IPO Drew Investors
The host opened with his own school memory of sitting in a planetarium learning astronomy, and asked what the space economy looks like today.
Most people think of history or a movie. Investors think of nothing
Menge said most people think of "some of the greatest moments in American history" or "maybe a Ron Howard film" when space comes up.
"You say the word space to an investor, you probably get a blank stare. The topic for investors, I would say, is relatively new. And really, that was SpaceX, the IPO this past summer, the spectacular IPO, which put it on the radar for investors." — Reid Menge
Space is already in daily life, starting with GPS
"There's, as we speak, 30 US government GPS satellites circling above us. They're doing it more than just positioning planes and ships. They're also helping Uber figure out where you are and where your driver is." — Reid Menge
He added weather forecasting and, increasingly, precision agriculture as commercial uses.
The next stage is commercial, including data centers
"So just framing it, space has been about exploration, national exploration, it's in the current stage of satellites, but what we're moving into is space being about the commercialization opportunities and data centers floating 15,000 miles above us in the not too distant future." — Reid Menge
