SpaceX vs. Huawei: Innovation, Power, and the New Tech Rivalry
From Cache Me If You Can by Center for Strategic and International Studies
April 22, 2026 · 28 min
About this episode
This episode explores the rivalry between SpaceX and Huawei and its implications for global technology competition.
In this episode of Cache Me if You Can, we examine how two of the world’s most influential companies, SpaceX and Huawei, are increasingly shaping the trajectory of global technology competition. Once operating in entirely separate domains, space infrastructure and telecommunications, these firms are now converging across critical frontiers, including AI, connectivity, and data ecosystems. Our guest, Eva Dou, is an award-winning journalist and the author of House of Huawei. Drawing on years of reporting on China’s political economy and technology sector, Eva unpacks how Huawei’s rise and its rivalry with U.S. firms offer a powerful lens into broader geopolitical competition. In this episode, we explore how space-based connectivity is challenging traditional terrestrial networks, why companies like SpaceX may be redefining infrastructure from orbit, and how both firms are becoming central to surveillance and data systems. This episode looks beyond individual companies to ask a bigger question: what do SpaceX and Huawei reveal about how the United States and China build, scale, and compete in the technologies that will define the future?
People in this episode
Guest: Eva Dou
Topics covered
- global technology competition
- AI
- connectivity
- data ecosystems
- geopolitical competition
- surveillance systems
Keywords
- SpaceX
- Huawei
- technology rivalry
- geopolitics
- AI
- connectivity
- data systems
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: SpaceX, Huawei
Books & works: House of Huawei
Places: United States, China
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