Nvidia (NVDA) shares rose 4% on Wednesday, notching a fifth consecutive day of gains, after Elon Musk declared that SpaceX (SPCX) would rely exclusively on Nvidia hardware to power its artificial intelligence products for the foreseeable future. SpaceX stock slid 12% following its first earnings call as a public company.
Speaking on the call, Musk said: “We’ve decided to build exclusively on Nvidia, because we think the Vera Rubin architecture is the best architecture.” He called it “the best AI computer” and emphasized the close cooperation between the two companies on multiple levels.
When asked how much hardware SpaceX is securing to expand AI computing capacity next year, Musk said the company expects to receive “a very significant percent” of Nvidia’s GPUs. That outlook, together with the two companies’ work on the proposed “Starmind” orbital AI data center network, added fresh support for Nvidia’s long-term demand story.
According to disclosures, SpaceX will use Nvidia’s top-tier Vera CPUs, Rubin GPUs and the Vera Rubin NVL72 rackscale system for the first Starmind satellite. Musk argued that the integrated design dramatically simplifies deployment—not just in orbit but also on the ground—lowering costs and improving efficiency. SpaceX’s thesis rests on harnessing more abundant solar energy and the extreme cold of space to slash data center cooling and power expenses.
The vision, however, comes with familiar execution risks. Musk is known for setting ambitious deadlines that often slip, and while he said on the call that the satellite “is not some sort of far future distant thing” and launches could begin next year, that timeline is widely seen as aspirational. SpaceX has proposed a “megaconstellation” of up to one million Starmind satellites to the Federal Communications Commission—roughly 100 times the size of its Starlink fleet, which took seven years to reach its current scale. Even if the project moves ahead, it would likely take years to make a meaningful revenue contribution.
Another long-term variable is Musk’s ambition to produce custom AI chips in-house. Tesla and SpaceX are planning a jointly owned factory to manufacture their own AI silicon. Musk has previously said that as long as Nvidia’s chips outperform what his companies can make internally, they will remain Nvidia customers. That posture hasn’t changed yet, but it leaves the future supply relationship open to shifts.
Year to date, Nvidia shares are up 18%, though they remain roughly 7% below their May highs.
