Valley of Depth ARKAEA x NYSE Space & Defense March Update
4 snips
Apr 1, 2026 
Mariana Perez Mora, Bank of America aerospace and defense analyst, offers market and valuation perspective. Mark Danchak, investor in growth-stage deep tech, focuses on space infrastructure and launch. Mike Annunziata, early-stage investor in aerospace and robotics, explains founder-driven bets. They debate space data centers, launch economics, valuations and NASA’s new lunar roadmap in crisp, fast-paced conversation.
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Launch Cost Is Necessary But Not Sufficient
- Google’s Project Suncatcher sets a rough launch-cost target of ~$200/kg for orbital data centers to be cost-competitive.
- Mike Annunziata and Jack note SpaceX internal costs could be $50–$100/kg but satellite manufacturing and mass production at tens of thousands scale remains the bigger barrier.
Invest In Founders Who Choose Hard Problems
- Do prioritize founders who are insatiably curious and can inspire a vision that tomorrow will be better than today.
- Mike says exceptional talent follows deliberately hard problems and prior domain experience signals higher odds of success.
Why Also Capital Backed K2 Space Early
- Mike Annunziata recounts investing in K2 Space in 2022 because they built the highest power at lowest cost, making them an enabler for future orbital compute.
- He says founders who map risks in sequence and have prior system-level experience attracted his early check.