SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has never been shy about ambitious timelines, and his latest involves putting AI data centers in orbit. He offered the most specific schedule yet for exactly when that plan starts becoming real.
The update landed just days before Nvidia reports its own quarterly results, giving investors two closely linked stocks to watch heading into a busy stretch for the AI trade.
The timing was not a coincidence.
SpaceX Starmind AI1 satellite launch and what Nvidia Vera Rubin means in orbit
SpaceX and Nvidia are jointly developing the compute payload for a satellite called Starmind AI1, the first in a planned constellation of orbital AI data centers. Each satellite will carry Nvidia’s Rubin GPUs and Vera CPUs, with Nvidia’s Space-1 Vera Rubin module delivering up to 25 times the AI processing performance of an H100 GPU.
Prototype testing is scheduled for early 2027. If development stays on schedule, mass production would begin later that year out of a new facility called Gigasat, with commercial launches at scale targeting Q4 2027 and beyond, according to Interesting Engineering.
The AI1 satellite features 75-meter solar panels, 30-meter radiative cooling panels, and peak computing power of approximately 250 kilowatts, averaging 175 kilowatts, enough to support a full Nvidia Vera Rubin NVL72 rack containing 72 GPUs.
SpaceX has asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to eventually deploy as many as 1 million satellites capable of handling AI workloads in orbit. The FCC granted an initial application but has not issued a final decision on the full deployment.
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Musk was direct about the exclusivity on SpaceX’s Aug. 4 earnings call. “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,” he said.
“So we’re exclusive to Nvidia,” he added plainly, as The Motley Fool reported.
SpaceX has pitched the orbital approach as a way to sidestep the terrestrial power constraints that increasingly limit how fast ground-based AI data centers can scale. Space would provide abundant solar energy, room to expand, and freedom from terrestrial fights over land, electricity, and water.
Nvidia’s role in SpaceX orbital AI goes beyond chips
Nvidia’s role goes beyond supplying hardware. SpaceX confirmed it selected Nvidia as the exclusive technology provider for its orbital AI infrastructure. That exclusivity has real consequences for Nvidia’s competitors.
Advanced Micro Devices posted its best quarter in company history in early August, with record revenue of $11.5 billion, up 50% year over year. Yet the stock fell more than 14% after the results as SpaceX’s exclusivity announcement overshadowed the earnings beat, according to AMD’s earnings release.
CEO Lisa Su emphasized the company’s existing multiyear AI deployments and partnerships with Meta, Microsoft, and Anthropic.
Nvidia’s relationship with SpaceX also runs financially in both directions. A 13F filing disclosed on Aug. 14 showed Nvidia owns roughly 122.8 million Class A shares of SpaceX, a stake worth approximately $21 billion at June 30 closing prices.
This traces back to Nvidia’s earlier investment in xAI before SpaceX absorbed the company in an all-stock deal. That structure makes Nvidia both a major supplier to SpaceX and one of its largest shareholders.
SpaceX’s satellite factory in Bastrop, Texas, spans more than 1,000 acres, and the company expects to reach meaningful production volumes there by the end of 2027, broadly matching the timeline for the first AI1 launches.
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SpaceX valuation, Goldman Sachs EBITDA forecast, and orbital compute trade
For SpaceX, the orbital data center plan is central to how Wall Street is trying to value the company beyond its rocket and Starlink businesses. Goldman Sachs has projected SpaceX’s EBITDA could climb from $6.6 billion in 2025 to $352 billion by 2030, driven primarily by the AI division, according to TheStreet.
That kind of growth assumption comes with an equally aggressive valuation. SpaceX currently trades at roughly 110 times trailing sales and 58 times forward sales. Multiples that leave little room for execution missteps on a plan this technically ambitious.
For Nvidia, this is less a new trade and more a confirmation of one already in place. Its chips are the exclusive choice for the most ambitious AI infrastructure project in orbit. That is a useful thing to be able to say heading into Aug. 26 earnings, when investors will be looking for signals on where long-term demand is coming from.
The financial entanglement between the two companies makes the stakes unusually direct. Nvidia wins twice if SpaceX executes: chip revenue and shareholder gains on a $21 billion equity stake.
If the orbital timeline slips again, both channels take a hit at once.
What SpaceX and Nvidia investors should watch next
The most important near-term signal for SpaceX investors is whether the company hits its prototype satellite milestones on schedule.
SpaceX has historically launched prototype units before scaling a new satellite program, and a delay in early AI1 testing would be an early sign the 2027 target is slipping again.
For Nvidia investors, the Aug. 26 earnings call is the next checkpoint, both for standalone data center demand and for any specific commentary tying the SpaceX partnership to future revenue.
Both stocks are effectively tied to the same underlying bet: that AI compute demand keeps outrunning the power and space available to build it on the ground.
Investors in either name should treat the 2027 launch date as the next milestone in a plan that has already shifted more than once, with plenty of room left to move again before the first satellite actually reaches orbit.
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