SpaceX has committed to building its future artificial intelligence infrastructure exclusively with Nvidia, marking one of the strongest endorsements yet of the chipmaker's next-generation AI platform, while unveiling one of its most ambitious artificial intelligence initiatives yet, announcing plans to build AI-powered "Starmind" satellites.
The announcement came during the company's second-quarter earnings call, where Chief Executive Elon Musk said SpaceX has decided to build its AI systems "exclusively on NVIDIA because 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. So, we're exclusive to NVIDIA," Musk said.
The announcement comes as SpaceX rapidly expands its AI ambitions alongside its launch and Starlink businesses. Musk said the company expects to end the year with more than 2 gigawatts of compute capacity, with cumulative compute potentially reaching close to 10 gigawatts by the end of next year, making it one of the world's largest AI infrastructure operators.
Another Star Is Born?
As part of that strategy, SpaceX said it will launch Starmind, an AI-focused satellite platform built around Nvidia's Vera Rubin NVL72 architecture, beginning next year.
"This is not some sort of a far future distant thing," Musk said. "We expect to start launching these next year." Musk said the same AI computer design would also be deployed in terrestrial data centres because it would be cheaper, simpler and more efficient than conventional rack-based systems.
The AI announcement comes as SpaceX rapidly expands beyond rockets and satellite internet. Musk said the company expects to end 2026 with more than 2 gigawatts of AI compute capacity, with cumulative capacity potentially approaching 10 gigawatts by the end of next year.
AI Ambitions
Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said AI has already become a major growth engine. The AI business generated $2.6 billion in second-quarter revenue, up 247% year-on-year, driven by cloud computing agreements and growing adoption of Grok. SpaceX also expects to cross a $100 billion annualised revenue run rate by the end of this year, helped by fresh cloud services contracts and continued AI demand.
The exclusive partnership is another major win for Nvidia — and a setback for AMD. Shares of Advanced Micro Devices dropped more than 8% on Tuesday despite posting record quarterly revenue after Musk disclosed that SpaceX would no longer buy AMD chips, underscoring the strategic importance of the Nvidia deal.
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