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AB Andrew Berglund On The Space Policy Show

“When I was a kid, NVIDIA chips were for my friends building their computers to play games. The same graphics processing units are powering AI frontier model development now. That's how quickly that's changed. You see recent stories about data centers pulling aircraft turbines off of decommissioned aircraft to power data centers. The demand and that competition can change so quickly. It's a strong argument for really high-quality data to drive decision-making.”

The Space Policy Show · Policy · November 2026

“When I was a kid, NVIDIA chips were for my friends building their computers to play games. The same graphics processing units are powering AI frontier model development now. That's how quickly that's changed. You see recent stories about data centers pulling aircraft turbines off of decommissioned aircraft to power data centers. The demand and that competition can change so quickly. It's a strong argument for really high-quality data to drive decision-making.” — Andrew Berglund, The Space Policy Show

Context

Asked about workforce and supply risk in the space industry, Andrew Berglund points to how fast AI data-center build-outs created new demand. Space suppliers now compete with that demand for the same inputs.

Transcript

The Space Policy Show Around 40:01 into the episode
Andrew Berglund

That's best for Jackie. I know when I'm overmatched influentially.

Jacklyn Buhrmann

…people who repair specialized machinery, because a lot of those sort of skilled technician jobs, I think, are at a high risk as well. And so that's one of the analyses that EMAC is actually currently working on is looking to identify some areas where there may be risk on the workforce side as well.

Andrew Berglund

Yeah, it's a good example too of how quickly things can change. And so I think flexibility and having really useful current data on what is happening is really important. Obviously, the labor market is never static. But if you look at what has happened with data center build outs, inputs for labor and inputs for all kinds of things, that's a demand that didn't exist just. Few years ago, right? Like, I think all the time about NVIDIA chips, because when I was a kid, NVIDIA chips were for my friends building their computers to play games, right? Like, that's what they were for. The same graphic processing units are powering AI frontier model development now, right? Like, that's how quickly that's changed. You see recent stories about data centers using aircraft turbines, even pulling some aircraft turbines off of decommissioned aircraft to use for powering data centers. So, the demand and that sort of competition can change so quickly. I think it really is a strong argument in favor of the need for really high-quality data to drive decision-making. And so, I guess that's another side of the need for a strong workforce, right? Like, the economists should be really busy helping inform policymaking right now because things are changing so quickly.…

Colleen Stover

Yeah, the space, the space sector, small but mighty. So, you mentioned some how numbers can inform decision making and measurements. What are some other kind of potential policy solutions to some of the risks that we've talked about? I mean, we've talked about workforce, of course, we've talked…

Andrew Berglund

I think the first is partly a data issue. I think we need better data on the lower tiers of the space supply chain and where those weaknesses are and how that's changing in a very dynamic time. I think one thing I'm interested in is how can government sort of bring that supply-side investment into…

Colleen Stover

Interesting. I'm picturing, if anybody does this, you heard it here first. I'm picturing an apprenticeship program where we're training up new workforce, but at the state level to take over these mom and pop garage garage places and keep the supply chain resilient. Yeah, Jackie, what do you think…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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