SpaceX CEO Elon Musk described plans to build factories on the moon as he presided over the now public rocket maker’s first earnings call this month. Even Musk admitted it all sounded “totally nuts.” But while Musk’s rhetoric and his timing estimates often don’t line up with reality, he’s not alone in seeing opportunity on the moon. Now, a new report is offering a look at the financial underpinnings of what could become a vast $566 billion lunar economy, and the ripple effects that could double it to more than $1.1 trillion.
The new report by advisory firm Deloitte and shared with Fortune in advance of its Wednesday release, estimates the budding moon-based economy could generate between $343 billion and $566 billion in upside through 2050. The range represents a conservative- to accelerated-growth scenario based on how quickly infrastructure, energy, and transportation services can get up and running on the moon, and then how quickly commercial businesses follow—which is no small feat. The most bullish scenarios also hinge on whether several bleeding-edge technologies advance over the next two decades, including rocket fuel made from water ice at the lunar poles, extraction of helium-3 to cool quantum computers, and AI data centers built to orbit the moon’s surface.
