The purpose of this paper is to investigate high-speed machine design enabled through the use of silicon-carbide based power electronic inverters. Silicon carbide based switching devices have superior properties compared to silicon based devices, and they are able to change the paradigm for high-speed machine design. High-speed machines with a higher number of poles are shown to reduce the machine weight and volume compared to low-pole number machines. Silicon carbide inverters can readily provide the high fundamental frequency requirement of high-pole number machines due to its MOSFET characteristics. From a system level optimization perspective, research results presented in this paper indicate that control laws that optimize the high-speed machine can be given higher priorities than designs that optimize the inverter, because the penalties of oversizing and loss aspects from the inverter are much less prominent by using silicon carbide devices than silicon devices.