Key Highlights

  • Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) disclosed owning nearly 123 million shares of SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) worth almost $21 billion at the end of June, though the stake's current value has since fallen to about $17 billion
  • The stake originated from Nvidia's Investment in xAI, completed in January, shortly before Elon Musk combined the AI lab with SpaceX
  • SpaceX confirmed during its first public Earnings Call that it maintains an exclusive relationship with Nvidia to equip its data centres
  • SpaceX plans to expand its computing capacity from 2 gigawatts by the end of this year to closer to 10 gigawatts by the end of 2027

Nvidia Discloses $21 Billion Stake in SpaceX

Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) has disclosed that it owns nearly 123 million shares in SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX), further underscoring the chipmaker's deepening financial relationships with some of its largest customers. The company owned SpaceX stock worth nearly $21 billion at the end of June, according to a regulatory filing, though shares in the rocket company have fallen sharply since its June initial public offering, meaning the stake is now worth roughly $17 billion.

The disclosure represents a substantial payoff on Nvidia's earlier investment in xAI, completed in January, shortly before Musk combined the AI lab with SpaceX. It highlights the scale of efforts by Nvidia's chief executive to use the financial resources of the world's most valuable company to build complex, often circular financial links across the AI industry, including with some of its largest customers.

SpaceX Confirms Exclusive Nvidia Partnership

During SpaceX's first public earnings call last week, Musk said the company maintains an exclusive relationship with Nvidia to equip its data centres, citing confidence in Nvidia's Vera Rubin chip architecture as the best available AI computing hardware and emphasizing the value of the close cooperation between the two companies. Nvidia has committed more than $100 billion to AI companies over the past two years, including sizeable investments in Cloud Computing start-ups and AI labs, and has also invested in a code-editing start-up that SpaceX acquired for $60 billion this week.

This week, Nvidia separately disclosed plans to assemble more than $500 billion from a consortium of major investors to help finance its customers, with Nvidia set to partially guarantee loans from those investors backed by the value of its chips.

Deepening Ties Accelerate AI Infrastructure Build-Out

Nvidia's extensive financial commitments have helped accelerate the construction of AI infrastructure industry-wide while binding parts of the sector more closely to its technology. SpaceX plans to expand its computing capacity from 2 gigawatts by the end of this year to closer to 10 gigawatts by the end of 2027, according to Musk. A major search engine company (NASDAQ:GOOGL) owns roughly 7 percent of SpaceX, having originally invested $900 million in 2015, with that stake now valued at about $94 billion according to the company's own disclosures to investors in July.