Musk Says NVIDIA (NVDA) AI Chips Are Headed to Space With SpaceX (SPCX) Next Year

Elon Musk has never shied away from ambitious timelines, and his most recent one connects two companies directly together. In a post on X dated September 13, Musk stated that he is "highly confident" that Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ: SPCX ) will transport NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA ) Vera Rubin NVL72 AI computers into orbit next year, repeating a plan that has already moved both companies' stock this year.

The comment strengthens SpaceX's Starmind concept, which aims to establish AI data centers in orbit rather than on the ground. The first satellite, named Starmind AI1, will carry a space-optimized version of NVIDIA's Vera Rubin NVL72 rack-scale system. The standard terrestrial NVL72 combines 72 Rubin GPUs and 36 Vera CPUs, although SpaceX and NVIDIA have not disclosed the final configuration of the orbital version. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) plans to launch the satellite in the fourth quarter of 2027 and reach substantial scale by 2028. Musk's plan isn't new; during SpaceX's first earnings conference as a public company in August, he stated that the company would build exclusively on NVIDIA hardware in the future, calling the Vera Rubin architecture the best available AI computer design.

Betting That Space Is Cheaper Than Earth

Musk's central point is that space is, in the long run, the most cost-effective area to develop AI computing. He cites solar power availability in orbit as a crucial advantage, and estimates that within two to three years, space might become the lowest-cost place for AI computing in general, describing the orbital architecture as simpler, less expensive, denser, and lighter than a standard data-center rack. Not everyone believes the physics and economics will align on Musk's timeframe. Microsoft President Brad Smith has publicly questioned the broader concept, telling reporters that he would be surprised if companies actually transferred computation from land to low-Earth orbit.

For NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), the read-through is simple: space-based computing would represent a new, if early-stage and speculative, source of demand for its Vera Rubin platform, on top of the company's strong position in terrestrial AI infrastructure. According to some analyst models, SpaceX accounts for approximately 5% of NVIDIA's revenue.

SpaceX's reasoning is more convoluted. The plan is entirely dependent on the success of Starship, SpaceX's next-generation rocket system, which still needs to demonstrate its capacity to handle launch frequency and reliability on the scale Musk describes. When Musk said during SpaceX's August earnings call that the company would build its future AI infrastructure exclusively on NVIDIA, NVDA shares rose more than 4%, while SpaceX's shares fell more than 10% before paring losses, reflecting investor concerns about execution risk and capital intensity, despite the fact that the NVIDIA relationship was well received.