CAPARC
A capital budgeting simulation
“Architect capital. Preserve options.”
You are the CFO of Halvane Orbital, a company that puts AI computing capacity into orbit because data centers on the ground wait years for power. Every block of satellites that you launch is money you cannot get back.
You are the CFO of Halvane Orbital, a company that puts AI computing capacity into orbit because data centers on the ground wait years for power. Every block of satellites that you launch is money you cannot get back. Over eight years you decide what to build, when to wait, and which risks to pay others to carry.
The experienceHalvane already has two blocks in orbit, sold out, and $4.0 billion in cash. The founder wants a million satellites. The board wants Halvane to lead in orbit at a cost that matches the ground, without betting the company.
Once a year you fill in the Commitment Ledger, twelve decisions on one screen. You decide how many blocks to launch and which design to fly: sealed, swappable chips, or swappable chips with a repair port. You decide whether to fund Halvane's own rocket or buy rides from Belmara, whether a partner should pay for blocks in return for most of their margin, how much capacity to sell ahead under long contracts, how to price, and how many orbital slots to claim before your rival Astrenne takes them.
Nobody tells you how uncertain your world is. Chips improve and the price of computing falls, launch costs move, and a major customer can default. The premium that early customers pay fades, and Haoyue Compute, a state-backed entrant, may cut what anyone will pay. Each protection has a price and covers one kind of risk. A flexible design protects you against technology surprises and does nothing in a weak market. The board reviews you every year, and it removes a CFO who runs out of money or lets the orbit go empty.
- Measure what you have committed and cannot undo. Spending alone tells you little.
- Flexibility is worth more when the world is more uncertain, and it always has a price.
- Waiting has a value and a cost, and both can be estimated.
- Different uncertainties need different protections: design for technology risk, contracts for market risk.
- Commitment can be rented from partners, suppliers, and customers, at a price.
- An option pays only when someone exercises it.
- Large, irreversible decisions under deep uncertainty are a class of decision that discounted cash flow analysis handles poorly. CAPARC gives students repeated practice with it.
- Flexibility can be designed into an investment. Students learn to stage it, make it modular, and share it with partners, and they learn what each protection costs.
- An early commitment claims scarce positions ahead of rivals, and a later one benefits from better information. Students decide, year after year, which advantage is worth more.
- Before paying for protection, a student has to diagnose the kind of uncertainty in play. In some worlds the best action is restraint, and the game rewards the student who sees that.
- Company and role
- CFO of Halvane Orbital, between a founder who wants a million satellites and a board that will not bet the company. Corvane is Halvane's AI-model affiliate, Astrenne is the rival, Belmara sells launches, and Haoyue Compute is the possible low-cost entrant
- Discipline
- Corporate finance and capital budgeting
- Also fits courses in
- Strategy, decision making under uncertainty, technology and operations management
- Format
- Solo. An instructor can assign a market code. The game saves after every year, and a results code lets the instructor replay any game exactly
- Time
- Eight annual decisions in three stages: Prove, Scale, and Serve. A game takes 25 to 30 minutes, so a class can play twice and compare
- Advisers and AI
- The founder, the chief engineer, the chief commercial officer, the lender, and the board speak from rules tied to your position, and the board review replays your own game to show what each decision cost
- How you are scored
- Enterprise value at the end of year eight, placed between a floor (the business with nothing added) and a ceiling (the best of five tuned reference plans in your world). Capital left stranded counts against you. There are seven grades from S to F, and the top grade also requires cost parity with the ground
- Teaching materials
- In-game briefing and glossary. The board review gives six lessons, each with one number from your own game, and names the losing pattern you fell into, such as Launch Fever or Paper Options
- Audience
- MBA corporate finance and strategy electives, and executive education in capital-intensive industries
CAPARC beside Finance Simulation: Capital Budgeting
Finance Simulation: Capital Budgeting, from Harvard Business Impact. Luehrman, is the simulation most programs already know here. Where ours differs: Teaches what those measures leave out: commitments that cannot be reversed, and the price of flexibility.
| Finance Simulation: Capital Budgeting | CAPARC | |
|---|---|---|
| Who plays | One student ranks 27 proposals with NPV, IRR, and payback | One student, the CFO |
| Time | One sitting | 25 to 30 minutes a game, so a class can play twice |
Formats and times come from each publisher's own product page, September 2026.
CAPARC comes ready to run in class
In-game briefing and glossary
Board review with six lessons, each with a number from your game
Named losing patterns, such as Launch Fever or Paper Options
Market codes an instructor can assign
Results code that replays any game exactly
Saves after every year
Seven grades from S to F
A game short enough to play twice in class
Bring CAPARC to your classroom
You can check out online in a few minutes. For a campus or a big group, just ask us for a quote.