Latest / AST SpaceMobile Podcast / Anpanman - The building blocks for data centers in space backed by Google

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Anpanman - The building blocks for data centers in space backed by Google · AST SpaceMobile Podcast

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This is the AST Space Mobile podcast.
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Where we just basically turn your phone be seamless
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regardless of where you are. We don't want the user even to
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know that it's connected by satellite.
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Listen, the opportunity that we have is very, very, very large.
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Hey everyone, I was not planning to do another space today, but
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some recent news that was broken by the Wall Street Journal
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spurred me to do another one. So I'm back.
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Hopefully you guys can hear me. Give me a thumbs up if you can,
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if I'm coming out OK, which I assume I am.
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But yeah, anyway, there was some big news that was broken by Wall
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Street Journal. It seems that Sam Altman of Open
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AI explore potentially investing in or perhaps acquiring Stoke,
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which for those that are not familiar, Stoke is a Stoke
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space, is a company that's building rockets.
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I think they're they're printable to reusable rockets,
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similar to SpaceX Falcon 9. And I guess over the summer, in
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the fall, Altman had reached out to potentially make it a big
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investment and then, you know, support the company in their
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development. And the the key reason for that
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is I assume he wanted to have unencumbered access to space as
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rocket lab and machine. He would say the keys to space.
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But you know, back then in the summer and fall, there's only
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one way, one freeway to get there, which is SpaceX.
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But of course, since then, Blue Origin has successfully, you
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know, launched and landed new blend.
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And so maybe perhaps the, the, the picture has changed quite a
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bit in terms of launch capacity. But the key part of the story, I
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think is, you know, open AI, you know, part of it is that
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they've, they have to in the, in the article, what they were
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looking to do. And I guess planning ahead of is
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looking at possibly getting access to space, you know,
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launch capacity, but then also trying to build out some type of
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capability for the eventuality of data centers in space.
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And I'll be the first person to admit that I was a bit skeptical
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of the whole idea, which was I guess, like a few weeks ago.
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But for those who haven't been following it closely, I guess
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for people in who've been, you know, steeped in an AI, they
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understand the ongoing and insatiable demands for
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processing power and the, you know, related power that goes
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along with that. And so, you know, there's this
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gold rush right now of everyone building data centers in, you
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know, here on Earth. Obviously for all these these
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companies, whether that's, you know, Amazon, Microsoft, Open
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AI, Google, there's this big rush to build data centers.
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But then if you kind of extrapolate that out over time,
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the, the amount of, you know, power required to do to, you
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know, that's going to be needed over the coming years.
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There's this whole idea of, of shifting that out to space,
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because in space, out in space, you can more efficiently get
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power from the sun. And you know, there's, there's,
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there's a whole host of reason why that could make sense.
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But, but of course that's, it's an expensive proposition and you
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know with launch coming down in pricing you can get more tonnage
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up to space. But then you know, obviously
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every, every amounts of kilogram that you send to space is very
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expensive. And and of course once once
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you're out in space and I'm not an expert on data centers in
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space, which I'm, I'm assuming maybe in the coming weeks I'm
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going to be learning more about it as we all are probably.
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But you know that that there's a whole host of new challenges
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that it presents. But I think why the reason why I
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wanted to fire the space up is that I think a lot of the key
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building blocks that are going to be required to deploy data
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centers in space actually already exist with AST Space
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Mobile. And so it's kind of funny
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because I think, you know, Scott Wisniewski and, you know,
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presentations would tell you that, you know, the company is
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in the right place at the right time, just given how focused the
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new administration is on leadership and spacing
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communications. And so now, you know, we're in
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this environment where you have this administration that's
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really supportive. And and so in a lot of ways,
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like it's, it's perfect timing for where the company is in in
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their development. And then all of a sudden this is
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kind of like the NVIDIA effect, right?
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Like you, you have a company that was focused on accelerator,
5:17
graphic accelerators for games and then all of a sudden this
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new application AI comes along and then shifts, you know, the
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use of NVIDIA graphics processors into computing for
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AI. And so I think you kind of have
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a similar type of prime form here where, you know, you AC
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space mobile. If you, if you take a step back
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and think about what they've done right, they've they've
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developed this huge platform, this that can generate A
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tremendous amount of power out in space.
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And it has the ability to support, you know, high level,
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high, high amount of processing power and also can dissipate
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heat and, you know, do that in a form factor that can go up in a
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normal rocket fairing, right. And so what's interesting is
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that if you think about what the essence of an AST looper
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satellite is, it's it's this large solar array that's flowing
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out in space that can generate a lot of power and can support
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processors and dissipate that heat properly.
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And also can, you know, process it a tremendous lot of
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communications like, you know, bandwidth or your your data
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throughput, right. And so I think if you were to
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just kind of take a step back and think about what a data
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center might need, you need a large solar array that's
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efficient, that can be deployed in a cheap manner.
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That is also, you know, in terms of processing per, I don't know
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how you would measure it, but the dollar dollar deploy like
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the most efficient way you can do that.
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You know, ASC has already done that, right?
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Like the satellites are all in cost, including launch, you
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know, averaging around what 20, two $23 million.
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And so and and you know, these are the the satellite solar
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array slash phase array is the size of a basketball court,
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right? And so if you can imagine, like,
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let's say you take a, a Bluebird satellite and you take off the
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phased array because you don't need that, but you leave the
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solar on one side and then you replace the, the Fpgas or what
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eventually will be ASICS. But you replace those with like,
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I don't know, a, a Google TPU, A tensor processor or an NVIDIA
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processor. And I, I forget exactly how many
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processors go into each Micron. Let's let's say the building
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block of the Micron is a 30cm by 30 centimeter square of solar
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panels. And then, I don't know, maybe
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you put in one or two processors, but then you know,
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you have a, a decent amount of batteries already on the
8:16
satellite. And then you would have to come
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up with storage solution. I would assume that it's going
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to be, you know, probably some type of flash storage.
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You probably don't want rotating mechanical hard drives out in
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space, although maybe maybe that's OK, I'm not sure.
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But you or you could in terms of data centers, I don't I don't
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know how much storage you would actually need on the on the
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satellite itself. You probably want storage on
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Earth, but you want processing to happen out in space.
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And so the way that you can communicate to and from the
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satellite would actually be through I bandwidth line of
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sight the, the feeder links, right?
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So the QV uplink and downlink or you could use laser, you know,
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optical links to communicate with Sally.
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But you want basically all the processing power to happen out
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in space that's married to the solar rays, right?
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And then the storage, I guess once the processing happens,
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you'd have some amount of storage on the satellite itself,
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but then most of the storage would be hard drives and and
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flash storage down on Earth. But it wouldn't take that much
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actually to just kind of reconfigure the satellite.
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And in some respects part of it, it will become, it will become
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less complicated because you don't have to have the phased
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array and you don't need to have, you know, that the, the
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bottom side of the, of the Micron.
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And you don't need to have, you know, the, the associated
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hardware with that. But yeah, you could leverage the
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solar panels and then put in the, the GPU's that whatever the
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customer wanted. And then and then some amount of
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storage and of course batteries on the satellite.
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And then you'd use the feeder links to communicate with Earth.
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And so which, you know, with the data center that's going to be,
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you know, nearby the, the terminal that communicates with
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the satellite. But yeah, it's it's pretty much
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all there. Like there's not much more you
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have to do. And so this company that we're
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invested in, it's kind of it's been under the radar and it's
10:20
becoming more discovered, of course, as we get closer to
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commercial service. But all you know, all these M
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and OS, they already they're already out there investing in
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data centers. So they kind of know what's
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going on. But I think for some of these
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larger players, like I know Google has been it, it's going
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to pilot like 2 small data center, you know, cube sats just
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to figure out what the, the space environment's like.
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But they're, they're doing that with Planet Labs, which they
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have a small investment in. But as most of you guys know,
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like Google's also a strategic investor in AST space mobile.
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And so that relationship already exists.
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And I think I mean, based off of what my interaction in using
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Gemini and, and of course I use ChatGPT and, and everyone
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probably has has tried the new Gemini.
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And I've been surprised by how quickly Google has improved
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their AI. We're already working with one
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of the key leaders, right? And so it doesn't take, you
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know, it's probably like a very simple conversation between AC
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and Google to like start working on this type of initiative.
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And it's not, it's not something that would distract you from the
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core mission of deploying the consolation for, you know,
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broadband direct to cellular communications.
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But you know, we've talked about this in the past where for any
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company that wants to get into this area, there's very few
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companies out there that have existing expertise.
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And so, you know, it's not even the primes kind of, I don't, I
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don't think the primes would, could do this in a cost
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efficient manner or innovative way.
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But if you think about like, you know, we're already at 500,000
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square feet of manufacturing production.
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And once the low band Bluebirds are, are built, I mean, we're
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going to be pumping these things out.
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You know, it's got, I guess we all forget like, or I forget,
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you know, the target is 6 satellites per month by the end
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of this year. But then they're going to bump
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that up to they've already talked about it like 11:50 a
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month eventually. And so if you extrapolate that
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out, like after they get the first shell up of low band
12:43
Bluebirds and they get the second shell up of mid band
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Bluebirds, they're going to have a ton of production capacity.
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Like they can go direct that capacity to something else.
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And so if you're Google or Open AI or Microsoft or Amazon, you
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know, congratulations for what you could redirect that
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production capacity towards building a new type of satellite
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that's going to be a floating data center in space.
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And, you know, just by talking about this out loud, like I
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think that's right. Like you, these satellites that
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would be data centers in space. I don't think you actually need
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to store the data on the salad because the, you know, each,
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each kilogram of weight that you go launch into space is pretty
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precious. And so you, you probably just
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want our generation and processing and batteries out
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space. And then you want the data to,
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it's basically edge computing in some way, right?
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You want the processing to happen in space and then you
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want the data to come back and then it'll be stored on Earth in
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a more efficient way. But but yeah, AC is going to
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have tremendous amount of production capacity to go do
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this and the IP is all there. I mean, there's 3800 patents and
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patent pended claims around this satellite.
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I mean, there's, there's obviously a lot of satellites
14:07
around or sorry, a lot of patents around communicating
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with the mobile device on Earth from a satellite.
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But then there's also patents around the unfolding mechanism
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of the satellite, you know, various patents around the
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underlying technology of the satellite, managing heat,
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processing, all that stuff. And so I think, you know, once
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they're done putting up the 1st 2 shells of the constellation,
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you could totally see these guys expanding into building data
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Centers for, for, and I, I, I don't think the company would
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align themselves with just one player.
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I think you want to stay neutral, but imagine going to
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your strategic partner, Google or Microsoft.
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And, you know, there were some rumors that the company met with
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Microsoft, I guess, like last fall, and no one really
15:04
understood why. But now that we're talking
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about, it makes a total sense. Like, yeah, shit, it makes total
15:13
sense that they would meet with Microsoft, right?
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Not only for, you know, communications trying to develop
15:23
applications around connecting consumers and making sure they
15:28
have full connectivity, but God, it makes sense now.
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Like AST has all the ingredients to put data centers up in space,
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right? And so as these companies are
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kind of groping around like so open, I mean, it just kind of
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shows how for thinking open AI is I, I don't know ultimately if
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where they're going to end up competitively.
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Cause 'cause now that Google, I mean, it's kind of funny.
15:55
Like, obviously technology is changing into breakneck,
15:58
breakneck speed. And one day SpaceX is like, you
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know, the leader in, in blue origins, laughing stock of the
16:05
sector. And all of a sudden the roles
16:07
have been reversed. And so just like Google has
16:10
seemingly leapfrog type GPT, I'm sure chat BTGPT is not going to
16:14
take it down, take it laying down and they're probably going
16:17
to leapfrog them, you know, and something else.
16:19
And then and then, of course, like the newer is going to
16:21
change. But I think for AST space
16:25
mobile, like having what I perceive is a definite winner,
16:29
which is Google as a strategic investor is going to be
16:33
important, right? Like I think just my own
16:37
experience in using Gemini and then of course, having the whole
16:41
ecosystem of Google Apps like that's really powerful.
16:44
And that's probably why Google is, has their AI is so good
16:48
because they, they, they're able to train it on tons and tons of
16:51
data, whether that's from search or just, you know, their various
16:55
apps. But I think in the future, when,
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when, and it's not just going to be, you know, the AI players,
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it's going to be actually, I was thinking about it more like it's
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going to be all these data center guys too.
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Like I run and core Weave and all these popular names that
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people talk about. Like all these companies, yeah,
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they, they've got this massive expertise and they're building
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data centers here on on Earth. And it's kind of funny that they
17:24
were like on Earth or in space. But all those companies, if
17:29
they're smart, they're going to be focusing on where the puck is
17:32
going to go. So they would be stupid to just
17:35
focus their efforts on optimizing things here on Earth.
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Like it's clear that companies, companies that go that are going
17:47
to, you know, ultimately get not get disrupted, But there's
17:53
there's like these players that that are currently in this boom
17:58
on earth, like they're going to have to start thinking about
18:00
where the puck is going. If their customers, you know,
18:03
Google's already thinking about it opening AI as well, But
18:07
eventually they will need some level of expertise and and they
18:11
will have to start talking to some of these bass players.
18:15
And so, you know, AST would make a lot of sense and for anybody
18:19
who's making end to end systems, you know, Rocket Lab probably
18:23
fits in there, you know, even Firefly and some of these
18:26
others. But I think, yeah, I think the
18:31
narrative changes quite a bit because now what we review what
18:38
this sector, which was viewed as kind of like Nichy and, you
18:43
know, a bunch of crazy people. Now you're, you know, you have
18:48
these large companies that are looking to get exposure into
18:51
space because it seems like ultimately that's where
18:55
processing is going to go. And I think like, you know, the
19:01
the AST is now well over $20 billion.
19:07
You know, what was kind of a sleepy, not a sleepy company,
19:10
but a relatively unknown company once people start thinking about
19:14
like, oh, well, how can I, how can I invest in this potential
19:17
theme of, you know, data centers or processing in space?
19:22
There's going to be very few companies, whether, you know,
19:24
there's some of the private side, but then there's one
19:27
company that has proven, you know, abilities in flight
19:32
heritage of putting satellites in space, and that's going to be
19:36
AST. And so whether that's the data
19:39
center companies or AI companies, they're all going to
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be looking to find a a player that has production capacity
19:49
that can build satellites that actually has know how that has
19:51
pretty much all the building blocks that will be able to do
19:56
pull this off. And so, yeah, I think as Kook
20:01
and I were talking about it this evening, we got pretty excited
20:03
because I think here you have HD Space Mobile, it's not just a
20:08
company that's working with M and OS who clearly.
20:12
You don't have a different level of tolerance for quality of
20:16
service. And you know, their their
20:21
demands of what they need for their customers are at a very
20:25
high level. And so if you think about like
20:29
some of these players looking to partner up with someone, yeah, I
20:34
mean, AST, they're already working with Department of
20:37
Department of War, SCA and others like, and you know,
20:41
perhaps we're going to, we're going to get these Golden Dome
20:44
awards. Yeah.
20:46
I think the company is quite well positioned.
20:50
And so I think, you know, most investors, they'll listen to
20:54
this, this, this space, you know, if I was like a, a hedge
20:58
fund guy, if I was in my previous role, I would listen to
21:02
this and be like, oh, that's bullshit.
21:03
Like this guy's just hyping it up and it doesn't make sense.
21:06
Or it's so far away or there's, you know, there's, who knows,
21:10
like there could be these other players, like these privately
21:13
funded players that are going to pull it off.
21:14
But then, but then like, I think the narrative in public markets,
21:20
like, like we've all seen the narrative can shift pretty
21:23
quickly. Like if a company, which is why
21:26
like, you know, even I had skepticism when when Elon Musk
21:30
was first like, and maybe it was a week ago or two weeks ago,
21:33
he's like, Oh yeah, you know, we could do data centers in space.
21:35
We already have the satellites. And then when I first heard
21:37
that, I was like dismissive of it.
21:38
It's like, OK, yeah, he's just trying to get his valuation up
21:41
because they're going to do another round of funding.
21:44
But then but then, you know, when you take a step back and
21:49
think about it, it's actually true.
21:51
Like his company is well positioned.
21:52
They have a ton of production capacity.
21:55
A lot of the building blocks are already there.
21:59
And so, yeah, why not like and and I think I think SpaceX, you
22:07
know, obviously is already and this is this goes into the
22:09
whole, you know, competitive landscape of SpaceX being
22:13
vertically integrated. If they because SpaceX is
22:19
associated with Twitter and Elan and of course Twitter has Brock,
22:23
how many companies want to work with SpaceX when you have like
22:28
mercurial founder who can, you know, turn on you or maybe
22:33
doesn't have loyalty. He's he's out for himself, which
22:37
as he should be, but I think like for a company like AST
22:42
space mobile, maybe you become the merchant supplier for these
22:48
data centers or the I mean the company doesn't have to even
22:51
produce satellites for or create these data centers.
22:53
They can license a decent amount of the technology out because as
22:57
we all know, the company is very astute in patenting all, the,
23:02
all the technologies that they develop.
23:03
And so it's interesting, like I, I remember going to the Block
23:08
One launch and talking to Hennessy or, or, or or friends,
23:12
the institutional investors there.
23:13
And, and I remember they talked about like they're being either
23:17
was like 5 or 6 pillars of business that AC could develop
23:23
over time. And one of them was of course,
23:25
like licensing their IP. And so just collecting royalties
23:30
based off of these various, which, you know, a lot of these
23:34
patents are fundamental patents that, that are needed for
23:38
whether you know, competitors or anybody looking to, you know,
23:43
utilize various communications technologies in space or of
23:47
course, like, you know, satellite technologies.
23:49
But I think the you know, the other the other area, which I
23:54
thought was, you know, when when the PM there told me this, I was
23:57
like, Oh yeah, that's interesting.
23:58
But I didn't really deep think that deeply into it.
24:02
But he was like, yeah, another potential pillar is that AST has
24:08
will have this consolation that's going to be generating A
24:10
tremendous amount of power out in space.
24:12
And so that's really valuable. And his point was that, you
24:15
know, putting communications aside, like you can leverage
24:18
that technology, you're going to have these like huge power
24:21
plants in space. And then, you know, in my mind,
24:24
I was thinking of like those funky ideas where and, you know,
24:28
we've all read about it, where people put up these large solar
24:31
rays in space and then they beam down power through various like
24:36
signals, microwaves or or whatever it is down to Earth.
24:40
And I always thought like that was kind of weird because maybe
24:42
that would have some impact on the atmosphere.
24:46
But but I didn't make the leap that, oh, you can, you can just
24:51
utilize the power up in space and then deploy different, you
24:55
know, processors, not our ASICS, but somebody else's AI
24:58
processors and then do the processing out in space.
25:02
And so anyway, but yeah, I think that's, I think we're at this
25:10
point in the in the company where, you know, it's kind of
25:15
like the right place at the right time where the narrative
25:17
can shift pretty quickly. And so I think on the one hand,
25:21
like we've got the the four story, which is, you know,
25:26
direct to sell communications to whether it's mobile phones or or
25:30
devices. You also have military
25:32
applications, communications and non communications applications
25:36
like, you know, electronic warfare, radar, all kinds of
25:39
things like that. And then I think because the
25:43
company has production and technological know how and
25:48
basically a lot of the key pieces, yeah, they're they're
25:56
they can either become a an arms supplier, you know, producing
26:00
satellites for somebody else or license or technology or
26:03
accommodation of those in order to enable these data centers in
26:07
space. And so, and I think it's
26:10
something that, you know, it, it's people will, if this like
26:18
this whole theme starts picking up more speed and people start
26:20
talking about it more, there's going to be this, this rush to
26:25
figure out like, OK, well, what are the investable ideas and
26:29
names that have exposure to this?
26:31
And it's not going to become, or at least I guess for most
26:34
people, it's not going to be very obvious and they're going
26:36
to have to dig quite a bit. But I think it's something that
26:41
perhaps I'll talk a bit more about in the coming weeks and
26:44
months, depending on, you know, and obviously, if the company's
26:49
not on board with it, then that doesn't make sense.
26:50
But I'm sure that they're thinking about it and they've
26:55
already already had conversations because for the
26:58
rest of us, we're not in the flows of things.
27:01
You know, it's like, oh, hey, daddy sinners in space.
27:04
We kind of laugh about it. And then all of a sudden it's
27:06
become the topic du jour and, and it's become that way because
27:11
it's already been talked about like months ago.
27:13
I mean, this this conversation with Sam Altman and Stoke
27:17
happened over the summer. And so who knows, like where
27:22
these types of conversations are leading now.
27:24
And so, yeah, I think it's the key thing is that it it opens
27:29
up, you know, everybody who's focused on the promise of AI.
27:33
It's like one of the key leading companies if you know, open AI.
27:37
But of course, Google as well are now focusing their efforts
27:42
on trying to put some of this processing out in space.
27:46
And so then people are going to the the narrative is going to
27:49
shift to, OK, well, if that's kind of the next big thing,
27:53
where what are the, what are the companies that I can invest in?
27:56
And so that that I think that that can kind of take a life of
28:03
its own, right. And so I was joking about with
28:07
Cook today, where this evening we were talking about it.
28:10
And it's like, oh, you know, like once people start putting
28:14
the piece of together, what seems unlikely or kind of
28:20
speculative or crazy, then starts becoming more tangible,
28:23
real. And so, you know, it's like when
28:26
the narrative shifted for all of these modular nuclear companies,
28:32
which no one really cared about like a year ago.
28:35
But then as as like investors became more aware and traction,
28:41
you know, for AI started picking up.
28:43
And then people started thinking about, OK, AI is a big theme.
28:48
What are the derivative plays or like, what are what are the
28:51
inputs? And it's like, well, I need to
28:52
own data centers. And then, oh, well, those data
28:54
centers, the power, what else can I own?
28:56
Oh, I need, you know, to bridge that gap.
28:59
Like, OK, clean energy is kind of out of out of style, but I'm
29:03
going to go buy natural gas, you know, power generation companies
29:07
and and then I'm going to buy nuclear companies.
29:09
And then and then beyond that, it's like, well, how are we
29:11
going to get from from here to there?
29:14
It's like, well, I'm going to go buy these highly speculative
29:17
modular nuclear companies who are promising the future, right?
29:20
And so, so that's how like that's how OK LO and SMR and all
29:26
these, these these companies like just totally took off.
29:29
Like OCLO went, you know, from 10s to like actually let me
29:34
look. Peak was like 140, I think.
29:37
Let me just see here. I mean, jeez, OK, the peak was
29:46
$193. This is for Aklo.
29:51
Just pretty crazy. I mean that I guess that
29:54
company, that company is probably what many years out
29:59
from a commercial reactor, but it's now at like 15 billion in
30:03
market cap. But yeah, that's that's the
30:07
power of Derrative and when people are trying to project
30:13
them in the future and and this kind of things forward.
30:15
And so I think for this particular area, which which is,
30:22
you know, data centers and putting computing power out in
30:24
space, I think the company is well positioned.
30:28
You know, obviously I don't know like there's a lot of wood to
30:32
chop and opportunity to opportunity to go after for the
30:35
core business. But after that, let's say in
30:38
2028, you know, when you're able to produce 12 satellites a
30:43
month, like if this, if the constellation is like fully
30:47
deployed then and you're going to have some like level of
30:50
maintenance where you're going to build some satellites to
30:52
replace old ones or upgrade them.
30:54
So that's you're always going to need that.
30:56
And the perhaps like you might make satellites for the US
30:59
government or some other other companies as well.
31:01
But but yeah, you can redeploy that capacity and utilize your
31:07
your technology in order to go tag this other opportunity.
31:10
But anyway, I think, I mean, this article, if I was, which
31:17
I'm not, but if I was a Rocket Lab or Firefly shareholder, I
31:22
would be pretty excited that, you know, this, that open AI
31:26
considered even, you know, investing or buying stoke, which
31:30
is pretty crazy. But that's, that just
31:33
underscores like the importance of, of launch and, and also
31:38
building and then, you know, systems are having that
31:41
expertise. And so this, this article, these
31:45
are the types of things that can spur more strategic discussions.
31:48
Like when I was an investment banker, you know, obviously you
31:52
probably as if you're at like a leading firm, you're probably
31:55
already aware of some of these discussions.
31:57
But if you're not, this type of article is what can then kick
32:03
off like real strategic discussions for other parties,
32:05
right. And so if you had an article
32:08
like this and then you might have like, you know, Microsoft
32:14
or Google call, call up a banker and say, Hey, I can you, can you
32:19
come in and talk to us about the strategic landscape and should
32:21
we get into launch in space? Can you talk about like all the
32:24
players and if we wanted to do M&A or partnerships, like who
32:27
have been talked to, what are the key companies?
32:30
And if you didn't get inbound calls as a banker, you'd be
32:33
making outbound calls. You'd you'd utilize this for
32:37
strategic discussions and you'd be talking to like every private
32:40
and public company about, oh, hey, you know, open AI, try to
32:43
make an investment or by and stoke and they want to do data
32:46
centers in space. Like what should you do?
32:48
And so that's like, that's when that's how like entire sectors
32:55
can re rate where these companies, you know, we're all
33:00
early to be, you know, to invest in AST or Rocket Lab or whatever
33:05
name. This is like how if you have a
33:10
big run kick off, right? Because I think, as I mentioned
33:14
Myspace earlier, you remember right now, we went from really
33:18
bad to like what I think is going to be really good at
33:20
heading into the end of the year.
33:21
And imagine, you know, like the company already is highly
33:27
attractive and has these growth factors that it's pursuing, but
33:30
then all of a sudden you add this other area, you know, like
33:36
just imagine if the company gets asked in the earnings call, you
33:41
know, hey, so it seems like there's a lot of interest in.
33:44
And by the way, like hopefully some research channels start
33:46
listening to this, but the next QA and maybe maybe I'll also
33:51
made an answer or sorry, a question to the company for the
33:54
next earnings call. I guess we all should just ask
33:57
them, Hey, could you talk about give us some thoughts about your
34:02
thoughts about data centers in space and how relevant it might
34:05
be for AC space mobile? I think we would get a pretty
34:09
interesting answer in response. And, and I think, yeah, if I was
34:15
a research analyst, I would be asking the company about about
34:19
this area and the potential of it.
34:21
Because if you have a new growth area that already leverages
34:26
assets that you have in production capacity, then it's
34:30
pretty much like a no brainer as long as you have, you know, I
34:34
guess the mental capacity and people to go execute on it.
34:36
But if Google were to come in tomorrow and say, Hey, we're
34:40
going to give you, I don't know, three or four, $400 million to
34:44
help us develop this area, then you would say absolutely.
34:48
Like you would hire people and you'd start, you know, you add
34:52
another, I don't know, 200 square footage, square feet of,
34:56
of production space and add more engineers and, and go, go after
35:00
it, right. But yeah, it's, it's pretty
35:06
crazy. Like I think, I think as this,
35:12
this is the type of thing that can kind of cause ripples in the
35:15
industry and, and really, you know, recalibrate how people
35:20
think about the opportunity. And so I think when people look
35:23
at launch and they look at communications and satellites
35:27
and Earth observation, all these things originally people like,
35:30
oh, it's very small. But if people are if companies
35:33
truly are thinking about putting data centers up in space, then
35:36
that that is a massive Tam, right?
35:39
And that's going to unlock a whole host of different
35:41
applications. I guess from an environmental
35:44
perspective, probably not a good thing.
35:46
I mean, it probably on balance, it's a good thing to not have
35:50
every square foot on Earth, you know, populated by data centers
35:54
and, and having all the energy that we can produce here, you
35:58
know, being taken up by the data centers, but putting those up in
36:00
space. But I guess on the flip side,
36:03
like you don't want too much stuff floating out there.
36:05
But but who knows, We'll see. But anyway, I think I think this
36:11
article, yeah, is pretty important.
36:13
I'll probably write more about it in the coming days.
36:16
I think people, I mean, thank God we have this investment with
36:20
Google and the connections already there.
36:22
And you know, the rumors of the company having talked to
36:26
Microsoft last, you know, this past fall, it's like now, or was
36:30
it fall or summer? But yeah, it all makes sense
36:32
now. And so it's, you know it, I'm
36:37
not saying it's going to be easy, but this company is
36:41
probably further along than a lot of others that are actually
36:44
focused on this opportunity. And so, you know, all the blood,
36:49
sweat and tears of, of developing satellites, like it's
36:52
going to, I think can go a long way in, in terms of attacking
36:57
this opportunity. And if people, you know, if, if
37:01
research analysts ask company on call, or I mean, imagine like if
37:05
you see an article from the Wall Street Journal or Bloomberg.
37:09
I mean, not that by the way, like company never leaks stuff
37:12
to these publications, but I'm just saying if you imagined, you
37:16
know, there being some headline saying that ASC space mobile's
37:19
in talks with Google to develop next generation space based data
37:24
centers, like what, how would the stock respond to that?
37:31
And if you're, if you wanted to get these guys were short, it's
37:35
like, well, first of all, I, I don't know why you would be
37:37
short, but we'll say if you are short, it's it, I, you know, I
37:43
remember being a portfolio manager.
37:45
And when some, you know, you hear, see some rumors or, or
37:48
news developing around the company and you're in denial and
37:51
you're just like, no, that doesn't make any, any sense.
37:54
You know, the stock's not going to react and then the stock's up
37:56
5%, that's up 10, then it's up 15.
37:59
And you're just like coming up with every reason why it doesn't
38:02
make sense. And that's going to go away.
38:04
And, and maybe you short some more, but then when it's up 20,
38:07
you, you capitulate and you just have to cover because you know,
38:12
your, your risk profile has changed.
38:14
Like the company, the company, you shorted the company based
38:19
off of one thing. And all of a sudden, instead of
38:21
just that one thing, the company is now pivoting or it's, or now
38:24
people are viewing it as a proxy for something else or that it
38:29
could turn into something else. Or that it is, it is working in
38:33
this other area, which is nascent, but it's going to be
38:35
big. And, and that's when, that's
38:39
when you can have like these like parabolic moves where
38:43
people rewrite the opportunity and, and the perception changes,
38:47
right. And so here I think what's great
38:51
is like we've got a commercial service, you know, the, the
38:55
deployment of the constellation and commercial service kicking
38:57
off in 2026. And now you've got some of these
39:00
other themes where space is hot, like AI is now pivoting into
39:05
space. And so how does that impact if,
39:09
you know, how does it impact the story and, and stock price
39:12
performance and people's perception of the future?
39:16
And like, oh big, I'll discount back.
39:19
I'll discount, you know, this new area of potential business,
39:22
right. And so, you know, if there was,
39:25
if Google did announce something with AST or Microsoft or any
39:29
number of players, which I by the way, like, I don't think the
39:31
company would exclusively work with one, one company.
39:34
Like true to the business model, like they want to work with
39:37
everyone. But yeah, I think I think, ha, I
39:43
see Eddie Garcia tweeted AST the backbone of Skynet.
39:47
I think that's right. Anyway, yeah.
39:52
So I I just wanted to like get, you know, get together on
39:57
another space and just kind of talk this thing through which I
40:02
think I think we'll we'll try to flush this out more in the
40:05
coming days and weeks. And obviously we've got a lot of
40:07
things to be excited about with Launch, but it is something that
40:10
I'm going to try to, you know. Try to talk with the company
40:13
about because I, I do think it's worth discussing and exploring
40:18
at least like having, having it on the radar to be aware,
40:23
because ultimately, like a lot of these players are going to be
40:28
looking for someone with expertise and I think AC has a
40:32
lot to offer and is well positioned.
40:35
So anyway, I'm now it's like midnight here in New York and
40:40
I'm tired, so I'm going to go to bed here.
40:42
But but yeah, thanks for joining.
40:44
I hope this was helpful. And I know look at some some
40:49
comments from friends, someone saying this discussion makes me
40:54
think that you guys have never stepped into a data center,
40:57
which is funny. I have not, although I've worked
41:00
with companies that do data centers.
41:01
But anyway, but yeah, thanks for joining and we'll, we'll, we'll
41:06
talk again. But yeah, I think, I think this
41:10
news is pretty important. And maybe I, I have a feeling
41:14
tomorrow. And of course, unless the market
41:16
like completely implodes, but I have feeling tomorrow that all
41:21
these pay stocks, I mean, they should be up like tomorrow.
41:24
Maybe they'll be slow and and you know, people will try to
41:27
keep stock prices down. But then when you have a story
41:31
like this come out, like there's going to be people looking to
41:34
cover and there's also going to be some long only guys who are
41:38
probably look to get V wop into more exposure.
41:41
So my guess is tomorrow the stock prices, you know, will the
41:46
stocks will move a little bit on this news, but over the day
41:48
you're just going to keep crying higher.
41:51
If they don't, then then I'm wrong.
41:53
But, but I, I think this, this article kind of changes the
42:01
whole view of the space sector quite a bit.
42:03
And, and now it feels a bit more tangible and, and yeah, people
42:07
are going to snap to attention and, and the folk, there's going
42:09
to be more focus on, on this area.
42:11
So anyway, that's it. That's all I got.
42:15
I'm going to let this run for a while and then close out.
42:18
But we'll, we'll be again tomorrow.
42:20
I'm going to be, as I mentioned before, I'm going to be hosting
42:23
a, a space with this company Strata critical, which I think
42:26
is a pretty interesting story. But, but yeah, thanks everyone
42:29
for joining and we'll talk again soon.
42:31
Take care. Thanks for listening to the AST
42:34
Space Mobile podcast. If you enjoyed this episode and
42:38
you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with
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others, post about it on social media, or leave a rating and
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review. To catch all the latest news
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about AST Space Mobile, make sure to subscribe.
42:50
Thanks again and I'll see. You next time.
42:56
We're doing something very, very big, and I think with this
42:58
technology we can really affect billion lives.
43:00
AFT Space globally is the only company that has full technology
43:06
to deliver cellular broadband connectivity directly from space
43:10
to the everyday smartphone. People will just basically turn
43:13
their phone and be seamless, regardless of where you are.
43:17
We don't want the user even to know that it's connected by
43:19
satellite. Our role is to bring this into
43:23
reality, always in partnership with the MMO.
43:32
Listen, Waffles.