The $10B Satellite Empire Putting AI in Orbit, Why Chips Beat Rockets & China's #1 Open Model | #266

According to Peter Diamandis and Planet Labs founder Will Marshall, satellites are becoming computing infrastructure for AI. A wave of 'large earth models' is turning orbital data and space-based computing into fundamental AI tools. Project Suncatcher represents one ambitious vision: processing data directly in space to eliminate transmission delays and bandwidth costs. The economics are shifting as launch costs fall and satellite computing becomes more cost-effective—what once favored Earth-based data centers now tilts toward orbit. Meanwhile, Chinese open-weight models advance rapidly in parallel. The core insight: space infrastructure—satellites, orbital compute, launch capacity—is becoming as critical to the AI revolution as the chips themselves.

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