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Nvidia’s $21 B Stake in SpaceX Signals a Deepening AI Alliance

8/15/2026, 3:13:44 AM

Core Investment and Valuation

Nvidia disclosed in a recent SEC filing that it holds 122.8 million Class A shares of SpaceX, a position valued at roughly $21 billion at the close of the second quarter. The chipmaker’s original $5 billion investment, made less than a year earlier, has therefore generated a substantial return. The stake ranks as Nvidia’s second-largest holding after its position in Intel. SpaceX’s market price has fallen since the filing, reducing the current estimated value of Nvidia’s shares to about $17.2 billion.

Strategic AI Partnership

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, told investors on SpaceX’s August 4 earnings call that the company will “exclusively use Nvidia chips” for its AI data-center needs, citing the Vera Rubin GPU architecture as the “best AI computer.” Musk indicated that SpaceX expects to receive a “significant allocation” of Vera Rubin GPUs in the coming year. The partnership is projected to extend beyond terrestrial compute; SpaceX is reportedly developing a “Starmind” satellite payload that would embed Nvidia GPUs and Vera CPUs to deliver data-center-level processing in orbit. The company has set internal AI-computing targets of more than 2 gigawatts by the end of 2026 and approaching 10 gigawatts the following year.

Investor and Market Reaction

Investor Larry Goldberg interprets the alliance as a shift from a standard chip-supplier relationship to a broader, standardized AI-infrastructure stack spanning Earth and space. He notes that Nvidia’s $500 billion AI-financing initiative could eventually support SpaceX’s expansive projects, even though SpaceX has not been formally named as a participant. Following the earnings call, SpaceX’s stock edged higher in pre-market trading, while Nvidia’s shares have risen about 20 % year-to-date.

Official Statements & Responses

Nvidia’s filing confirmed the size and value of its SpaceX holding and emphasized the strategic importance of the investment to its broader AI portfolio. Musk’s earnings-call remarks underscored a commitment to a single-supplier model for AI hardware, positioning Nvidia as the exclusive provider for both ground-based and orbital systems.

Verbatim Quotes

  • “Going forward, we’ve decided to build exclusively on Nvidia, because we think the Vera Rubin architecture is the best architecture. We think it’s the best AI computer, and we greatly value our close cooperation and partnership on many levels with Nvidia. We’re exclusive to Nvidia,” — Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc
  • “Clearly this is more than buying compute in the normal course but a decision to standardize the entire AI infrastructure stack, terrestrial and orbital, on one supplier’s architecture,” — Goldberg. SpaceX, sixth biggest investor