00:00Rob Nice is founding partner of H3 Capital, a London-based technology venture capital firm.
00:05Rob, thanks for joining us. Just how big a business is space for investors?
00:11I think it's almost infinite. If you think about the opportunity and what it means to humanity,
00:17without sounding too cliched, it's one of the biggest opportunities I think that investors will probably have.
00:22So something like SpaceX, if they do take a leadership position, the valuation is almost unbelievably high.
00:29Yeah, SpaceX could be the biggest IPO of all time. What impact would that have on the space sector?
00:36I mean, I think it defines the space sector almost entirely in the public markets now,
00:42where when you talk about industrials or CPG, space is going to have a sector right up there,
00:46which means a whole other set of knock-on effects in terms of coverage, in terms of other IPOs.
00:51So I think it really sets the ball rolling to define space as a true vertical in the investment sector.
00:55And could this bring more opportunities, for example, for AI companies, for chip companies?
01:02I mean, I think it grows the pie. I mean, it grows the spending that's going to happen on rockets
01:06and the other technologies.
01:07So I think all these have knock-on effects, and the winners are usually the software players,
01:12particularly the AI companies, and the semiconductor providers to make the chips.
01:16So I think it does have a very large knock-on impact.
01:19This investor capital then gets recycled into other tech companies.
01:22China is making it easier for firms developing reusable rockets to list.
01:27What does this say about the importance of the space sector for China?
01:32I mean, I think since the 70s, as a nation state, it's one of the most ultimate goals of supremacy
01:38and competition.
01:40So I think no country can afford to neglect this, and there is a literal arms race to get things
01:45into space.
01:45So I think it's probably one of the highest national priorities to not be left behind if another country does
01:51take the lead.
01:52So global investment in space hit new highs in 2025.
01:56Do you expect this trend to continue this year and into the future?
02:01I think it'll continue.
02:02I think it's somewhat gated by just the number of companies right now, that because this industry is, you know,
02:07it takes a lot of capital to start things up and build rockets.
02:10You know, the number of companies are what the constraining factor is.
02:13So I think more money will come in, but that money will then increase the number of companies being formed.
02:17But I think right now it's almost supply constrained.
02:21Rob, I've been looking at space all week.
02:23Reusable rockets, satellites.
02:25What excites you most about the space sector and the future of it?
02:29I think it's really cool talking about manufacturing at that level.
02:33When you think about doing zero-g chemistry or trying to make crystals without gravity,
02:37you know, it makes some amazing physics effects that we've never really experienced before.
02:41So if you can do manufacturing at a large scale at a zero-gravity level, it's pretty phenomenal.
02:48I think it opens up a lot more crazy things that we never even thought about before.
02:52And let's look into the future.
02:55Space tourism, for example.
02:56Do you think we will see people, you know, going to the moon, staying there?
03:00Is that a possibility of the future?
03:03I think it is.
03:04I think the question is just the time frame.
03:06You know, will it happen in our lifetimes?
03:07You know, certain things, just the ability to travel fast is one of the constraints right now,
03:12that you reach the speed of light being the constraining factor.
03:14So until we have technologies that can exceed that,
03:17I'm not sure how we can really do it without wasting half our lifetime in transit.
03:21But I do think it will be a goal, and someone will eventually figure it out.
03:24And let's just lastly look at IPOs again.
03:27Which other IPOs could you be excited about, aside from the big SpaceX one?
03:33Hard to say.
03:33You know, I haven't been able to dig into the financials and understand the ambitions.
03:37You know, again, I think the SpaceX IPO will kick off a flurry of other IPOs
03:41and open up the market like any big IPO does.
03:43So I do think there will be a lot more than emerge that go public,
03:46some of them good, some of them bad.
03:48But it's still, again, early days where these are companies that are still almost infantile
03:52in terms of their stage compared to a software company that's able to launch.
03:56Rob Nice, thank you very much for those insights.
03:59Founding partner of H3 Capital.
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