SpaceX has reportedly filed confidential paperwork for an initial public offering in which the company would raise $75 billion at a $1.75 trillion valuation. And according to CEO Elon Musk, orbital data centers will be a big part of SpaceX’s future.

On the latest episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Sean O’Kane, and I discussed Musk’s vision, as well as other companies that are pursuing similar goals.

It will take significant tech development and massive capital spending to make orbital data centers a reality, but as Sean noted, with “opposition happening around the country to data centers in general,” executives like Musk and Jeff Bezos may be thinking, “The engineering challenge may be less than the social challenge back here” on Earth.

Read a preview of our conversation, edited for length and clarity, below.

Sean: This has been a trend — I would say a rapidly forming trend — over the last half year to a year, and we have different examples of it. We have SpaceX; I feel like in some ways, Elon Musk was late on this trend.  And for the moment, let’s set aside the actual mechanics and the viability of data centers in space. We could talk about that in a second if we want, but — 

Kirsten: We have a really good story we’ll link to in the show notes, by the way. One of our most recent hires, Tim Fernholz, is amazing. He writes all about the physics and the constraints of that.

Sean: Yeah, I think it’s a really interesting engineering challenge. It’s a really interesting physics challenge. It’s a really interesting orbital mechanics challenge. But it’s something that clearly a bunch of companies and people are going to try and chase. [There’s] going to be SpaceX doing it, with a kind of variance of what they’re already working on with their Starlink network. 

There’s a startup that had come out of Y Combinator, originally called Starcloud, that was really one of the first ones out there trying to build a huge business around this, that just raised $170 million this week, their valuation [on] that tipped them over into a unicorn status.

Jeff Bezos is trying to go after this as well. This is a next generation version of the competition that we’ve seen happening between Starlink and Amazon’s Leo satellite network, and Blue Origin has its own satellite network coming online as well in the next couple of years.

So there’s going to be a whole bunch of this happening, and it feels like it wasn’t happening a year ago. I know the way that Elon Musk pitches it is — we know he’s allergic to red tape, he’s built a data center in Memphis, too. Maybe now he knows the challenges and the risks you have to take to sidestep that red tape.

There’s a lot of opposition happening around the country to data centers in general. And these people say, “We have access to space, so let’s just try and do it up there.” The engineering challenge may be less than the social challenge back here on our [planet].

Kirsten: And it also creates excitement, right? If a company is about to go [public] and they’re working on data centers in space, this is something that people can have expectations about in a positive way and ignore the constraints. It feels like a company that is working on something that’s not old and outdated, but signals the future. And it’s really a great strategy when you think about it.

Anthony: Not that Elon Musk is the only one who does this, but it seems like he’s incredibly successful at being like, “Don’t judge my companies based on how much money they’re making now, judge them based on these grand visions that I can spin out about what will happen in the future.” 

And going back to a point that Sean was making, I think that part of what’s interesting is to [ask]: How does this fit in with the broader data center rollout? How does it fit in with opposition and the idea that maybe people are not going to be able to build as many data centers as they want to? 

I don’t think any of us are engineers who can really assess the viability of these plans. It does certainly have a tinge of fantasy to it, but even when they do lay out these plans, it feels like just a drop in the bucket in terms of compute capabilities compared to what they want to build out on Earth. So it feels like there’s not a scenario where this replaces a whole bunch of new data centers on Earth. It’s just sort of a […] supplement to it.

Sean: The last two things I’ll point out that are really front and center for me is, one, we’ve seen a backing off in some ways [from] data centers — not just because of opposition, but because maybe we don’t need as much, right? We see a bunch of jockeying from some of the AI labs about, “Well, maybe we don’t need to lease this much from this company,” or whatever. And if that becomes a thing that is more true than it was five months ago, do you all of a sudden lose all that momentum to do something as crazy as putting the data centers in space? Providing that it works, even.

The other thing is that the idea of building these massive data centers in space, with all these satellites that make up the quote unquote “data center,” is business for SpaceX.  And I think this is unique to them compared to these other companies: They are a launch company primarily, even though they generate a bunch of revenue from Starlink. They are the vehicle that gets the data centers to space. They get to book that as revenue for SpaceX. 

And so it becomes this thing where, of course [Musk] wants — whether or not it works, he would eventually have to prove it — but of course he wants to send more and more satellites into space because it’s more revenue for SpaceX. And that makes SpaceX look better as a public company. And then you just kind of tumble down the path until he finds something else to pitch the investors on.

Prof Neil Rowan sits down with SiliconRepublic.com to chat life, work and advice for students.

As he describes it, Prof Neil Rowan was thrust into the world rather prematurely. Coming in at less than a kilogram at birth, Rowan tells me he spent months in an incubator, sure that he wasn’t supposed to make it.

Later, he wonders if that’s what gave him the drive – a sort of “accelerator button” on his life, firmly pressed, “always”.

From breaking regional sprinting records at the local athletic club as a teenager, to being awarded a higher doctorate of science some four decades later, Prof Rowan has achieved more than many – especially for a boy from a middle-class family from Coosan in Athlone.

Among his very large list of accomplishments, Rowan is an expert in medtech, food security, environmental sustainability and bioeconomy, and the inaugural director of the Bioscience Research Institute at Technological University of the Shannon (TUS). He is ranked number one in the world for decontamination research.

He is also on a United Nations panel on the effects of nuclear war, as well as on the new National Science Advisory panel and a new scientific committee for the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. He also works closely with the European Commission and Research Ireland on various innovation programmes. I will refrain from adding to this list, lest I overwhelm the reader.

“The funny thing is, I’m colourblind,” Rowan tells me. “I only ever saw green … so I was constantly ‘going’.”

One of five children, Rowan was the first from any generation in his family to have attended university. His parents never finished school, he tells me.

“My dad was 52 years working with the one company [fixing weighing scales],” he says. “Going to college [at the time] would have been very expensive.”

A football scholarship led Rowan to the University of Galway in the 1980s, after which the young academic made his way to the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow on a different scholarship to take the first-ever course at the institution looking at biotechnology.

10 papers and a PhD later, Rowan was appointed as a lecturer – and then a senior lecturer at the University. He was 29 years old.

Rewarded for decades of research

Rowan made headlines earlier this year for being recognised with a higher doctorate of science by the University of Strathclyde – a first for any academic working in TUS.

A higher doctorate of science is above a PhD. It is the highest academic degree in the Irish and UK university systems, awarded to scholars who demonstrate a significant contribution to their field over several decades. Fewer than 10 higher doctorates are awarded per year in Ireland. Rowan describes the degree as a ‘black swan’, a definite rare occurrence.

“Every day is a school day”, according to Rowan, who has published a minimum of six to seven research papers every year for the past 30 years. His higher doctorate thesis comprises 150 peer-reviewed journal papers presented in two volumes, totalling approximately 1,600 pages.

The submission covers his research from 1995 to the present day, delving into his work in advancing the fields of disease prevention and control that cross-cut medtech, food safety and food security globally.

Rowan’s still surprised at his achievements. He tells me that he is “constantly surprised, pleasantly surprised” at any recognition, even after all these years.

Throughout our chat, the professor made several mentions of ‘firsts’ in his various fields of research.

According to Rowan, he created the first-ever toxigenic-mould growth prediction model for the built environment in the early 1990s. It was the first to use computer simulations and algorithms for elucidating biological solutions to inform improvements in sustainable building design that subsequently became a European reference model.

More recently, Neil leads the first ever bio-economy demonstrator facility at scale using freshwater fish in peatlands, now used in Ireland and to be replicated across Europe.

Prof Rowan introduced the first PhDs in biomedical sciences, health and sterilisation science in TUS, and also reported on the first use of several disinfection technologies such as pulsed light, pulsed electric fields and pulsed plasma for disease prevention and food security, including from a underpinning mechanistic perspective.

An educator and an enabler

When asked how he describes his work, Rowan says he’s both an “educator and an enabler”.

“I think I enable people to help themselves,” he explains.

He has supervised around 120 undergraduate projects, as well as around 40 PhDs with industrial applications – such as a new vaporised hydrogen peroxide terminal sterilisation method, or a new classification system for medical device features and cleaning for improved patient safety.

Rowan says he loves to teach and that he resonates with his students. He says his work has a “lasting legacy”, given his students’ creative footprints on society.

Through our chat, the professor highlighted the importance of being an “agile listener”.

“I was always an active listener and prepared to spend considerable time studying to understanding to get to the root of things.”

However, also important is having ambition, he says. “I was always brave and ambitious. I was always not afraid of taking on very grand challenges. I was always trying. I was never not afraid to do things.”

Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

But once you’ve set up your device, Heatbit will track and file your mining revenue to your phone, even if you don’t yet have a bitcoin wallet set up. After you reach the transfer minimum of 100,000 satoshis, or one thousandth of one bitcoin ($66 at April 2026 prices), you can transfer this to your wallet and, presumably, spend it. Heatbit’s app is compatible with the Lightning networks and most major exchanges (Coinbase, Binance, OKX, BitFinex).

Unlike many air purifiers that activate only when there are air quality issues, the Heatbit continually pushes air through its HEPA filter while the miner and heater are active. While Heatbit recommends filter replacement once every six months, in practice, the app showed that the filter was being used up by about 1 percent a day. For whatever reason, my Heatbit app refused to believe that I was not in Seattle, and so my exterior air quality readings were all tied to King County, Washington.

Early quirks aside, the ease of onramp is admirable for a device not aimed at crypto-loving engineers. At current prices, if I run my heater/miner nonstop, this would net me about a $70 rebate on my heating bills once every two months. Pretty cool, right?

Why the Math on Heatbit Doesn’t Pencil

Heatbit via Matthew Korfhage

But here’s the problem with that math. I’d also need to pay at least $1,500 upfront (the current discounted price of the Maxi Pro) before I get access to these savings. This is about $1,350 more than the best space heaters I’ve tested. It’s also around $900 or $1,000 more than a combination purifier–heater from Dyson. So your money-saving math needs to take this upfront cost into account.

At this rate, assuming my energy costs and bitcoin prices stayed constant, it would take me between five and eight years to “make my money back” in bitcoin if I ran this thing 24/7 for four months a year. That’s on a device with a one-year warranty. (Heatbit’s founders say there has been a failure rate only in the “low single digits” after three years for the first-generation Heatbit Trio.)

These numbers assume I would otherwise run a space heater nonstop at full blast for months on end as a primary heat source—which is not how most people use space heaters. I tend to turn on a space heater only when I’m in a room, and direct it toward myself. For heating a whole house, natural gas or a heat pump are both far more cost-effective options, if available.

But let’s say you have only electricity for heat. And you would always be running a space heater. And let’s assume the Heatbit keeps running at the same efficiency for at least five years. Is the Heatbit now the best choice, economically? Well, still maybe not.

Every Crypto Miner Is a Heater

Every crypto mining device will heat your house, whether or not its makers advertise it as a space heater. Each miner will release heat with 100 percent efficiency, according to how much power it uses. That’s because one way or another, all power waste will eventually get converted to heat.

The most efficient combination space heater and bitcoin miner will always be the one that mines bitcoin most efficiently. At that point, you could just pick up a Canaan Avalon Q ($1,900) and get a 50 percent better hash rate and produce about the same amount of heat. Newfangled ASIC Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) miners might net you even better efficiency. Pretty much anything you use, with the same amount of power, will release this much heat.