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OpenAI & Tech· Tier C · not scored· not scored

Will Marshall predicts that when launch costs reach $200-$300 per kilogram, orbital data centers will be cheaper than terrestrial ones on pure cost grounds.

On Freakonomics Radio · unverified speaker · Freakonomics Radio · Jul 24, 2026

We did a calculation with Google about eight or nine years ago now looking at all the cost of data centers on the ground, all the cost of data centers in space, and we sort of did modeling and figured out that by around cost of launch coming to 200 to $300 a kilogram, it would just be cheaper. Purely on cost grounds, it would be cheaper to put them in orbit than to put them on the ground.

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Launch costs fall to $200-$300 per kilogram and cost analyses confirm orbital data centers are economically cheaper than terrestrial alternatives.

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