SpaceX Drafts NVIDIA for Orbital GPU Cluster, Markets Read "To The Moon" 🚀

SpaceX will equip its planned Starmind orbital computing network with NVIDIA's latest Rubin GPUs and Vera CPUs, expanding an AI hardware partnership that sent shares of both companies higher on Tuesday. The announcement lands hours before SpaceX is set to deliver its first quarterly results as a publicly listed company.

Starmind, a proposed constellation of space-based AI data centers, marks SpaceX's most ambitious computing push to date. NVIDIA has branded the Rubin and Vera silicon as the foundation of its emerging space computing business, which it formally launched on March 16 with six initial launch partners: Aetherflux, Axiom Space, Kepler Communications, Planet Labs, Sophia Space, and Starcloud. SpaceX was not named in that rollout but joined the roster in Tuesday's update.

Earlier this year, SpaceX filed with the Federal Communications Commission seeking clearance to deploy up to one million orbital data center satellites at altitudes between 500 and 2,000 kilometers. The Starmind compute layer would ride on that proposed mega-constellation, positioning the rockets-to-satellites operator as both a launch provider and an in-orbit cloud tenant.

The deal also deepens the working relationship between Elon Musk's companies and NVIDIA, whose processors already underpin xAI's training clusters. With SpaceX preparing its debut earnings report, investors are watching closely to see whether the orbital AI roadmap features in management commentary and forward guidance.

Neither company has disclosed contract value, deployment timelines, or the specific satellite models slated to carry the Rubin and Vera hardware, leaving the scale of the build-out to be clarified in subsequent filings and FCC docket updates.