SpaceX Joins a Club It Was Missing From In New Nvidia Deal: How Will Stocks React?

SpaceX has picked Nvidia to design the compute payload inside its Starmind AI1 satellites. Both stocks rose Tuesday. The news landed hours before SpaceX reported its first quarterly results as a public company.

Starmind is SpaceX’s plan to put data centers in orbit. Each satellite will carry Nvidia Rubin GPUs and Vera CPUs, the chipmaker’s newest generation. Nvidia calls the market space computing.

SpaceX is partnering with @Nvidia to design the Starmind AI1 satellite compute payload. Each of the Starmind satellites will include NVIDIA Rubin GPUs and Vera CPUs for datacenter class space compute → https://t.co/4MOQv0DvTQ pic.twitter.com/rC7UBAznAO

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 4, 2026

Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens

SpaceX Taps Nvidia for Starmind AI

Nvidia launched its space computing line on March 16. It named six early partners that day. Aetherflux, Axiom Space, Kepler Communications, Planet Labs, Sophia Space and Starcloud all made the list.

SpaceX did not. That gap closed on Tuesday, and it closed with the biggest customer on the board.

In January, SpaceX asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for up to one million orbital data center satellites. The application covers altitudes from 500 to 2,000 kilometers. SpaceX describes the design as a petabit laser mesh.

For scale, roughly 15,000 satellites orbit Earth today. SpaceX wants to multiply that by 66.

How NVDA and SPCX Stocks Reacted

Nvidia (NVDA) traded at $212.91 on Tuesday afternoon, up 3.03%. SpaceX (SPCX) climbed 8.67% to $124.46.

SpaceX needed the lift. The stock sat 35% below its peak in early July, even after joining the Nasdaq-100.

The chips lend the plan weight. Nvidia says its Space-1 Vera Rubin Module delivers up to 25 times the AI compute of an H100 GPU. Volume shipments start this fall.

What the SpaceX Nvidia Starmind Deal Needs Next

Money is the open question. SpaceX’s AI unit lost $6.4 billion on $3.2 billion of revenue last year.

Tuesday’s 4:30 p.m. ET webcast offers the first real read. Analysts have mapped three earnings call scenarios, and Starlink cash flow sits at the center of each.

Opinion is split. Cathie Wood named SpaceX her favorite holding in July. NYU finance professor Aswath Damodaran has warned of a coming AI shakeout.

Regulators still hold a veto. The FCC accepted the filing in February and has yet to rule. Until it does, Starmind is a chip order without a licence.