Space Economy, billion-dollar opportunities for Italian companies

The Space Economy confirms itself as a rapidly expanding sector for the Italian industrial system, with numbers that strengthen its strategic role for productivity and the opening to new markets. This is what emerges from the research “The Sky is (not) the Limit: The Space Economy as a new frontier for the competitiveness of Italian companies”, presented in Milan by Deloitte in collaboration with the E. Amaldi Foundation.

According to ANSA, in 2024 the sector generated an additional revenue of 4.5 billion euros, marking a growth of 12.3% year-on-year. The sector now involves over 400 companies and more than 15,000 employees, an increase of 5.6%.

Export is also rapidly expanding, reaching 7.5 billion euros in 2023 (+14%), while startups and micro-enterprises report a revenue growth of 60%, confirming the dynamism of the entire ecosystem.

From an application perspective, 70% of companies use satellite data transmission, which represents the most widespread asset. This is followed by environmental monitoring and advanced security and surveillance systems (both at 62%), ultra-fast connectivity solutions (61%), and monitoring of sites, plants, and infrastructures (57%).

At the macroeconomic level, Italy confirms itself as one of the main global players in the sector: it ranks sixth in the world for the ratio of space investments to GDP — a value that has almost doubled in recent years — and third in Europe for its contribution to the budget of the European Space Agency, with a share of 15%.

“The space economy confirms itself as an expanding market and a lever of competitiveness for Italian companies”, stated Giorgio Mariani, emphasizing the importance of strengthening strategic partnerships and ecosystem models to support growth and international competitiveness in the sector.