AMD Holds Over $565 Million in SpaceX Shares as Musk Shifts to NVIDIA
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Musk announced SpaceX will standardize all AI compute on Nvidia, dropping AMD from its chip roadmap — yet AMD still holds ~3.3 million SpaceX shares worth over $565 million, making it a chipmaker shut out of the deal but still sitting at the table as a shareholder.
Why did Musk drop AMD?
Musk stated on SpaceX's early-August earnings call that the company will fully standardize its AI compute infrastructure on Nvidia, scrapping earlier plans to source chips from both Nvidia and AMD.
The binding logic: Nvidia invested $10 billion in xAI — the AI company SpaceX acquired in early 2026. That turned Nvidia from a vendor into a deep-capital ecosystem partner.
This means → Musk didn't just pick a chip; he picked a partner that writes checks and ships hardware. AMD's product performance alone can't pry open that kind of relationship.
How big is SpaceX's compute ambition?
Musk disclosed that SpaceX expects cumulative compute capacity to exceed 2 gigawatts by end of 2026 and approach 10 gigawatts by end of 2027 — far above the industry's 5-gigawatt average.
SpaceX also unveiled "Starmind" — a space-based AI satellite program. Each satellite will carry Nvidia Rubin GPUs and Vera CPUs, delivering data-center-grade AI compute in low Earth orbit, with a first launch planned for 2027.
In plain terms = SpaceX isn't just building compute on the ground — it's putting data centers in orbit. At that scale, Nvidia hasn't won an order; it's won an exclusive pipeline from ground to space.
Is AMD's $565 million SpaceX stake a loss or a win?
AMD holds roughly 3.3 million SpaceX shares, valued at over $565 million at the latest pricing. The stake was revealed through institutional 13F filings after SpaceX's June 2026 IPO.
That holding is not the same thing as a rejected chip deal: SpaceX's business extends far beyond AI hardware. Starlink subscribers grew from 2.3 million at end-2023 to over 12 million today; satellite manufacturing and launch cadence are also expanding.
This reflects something different: AMD's stake is closer to a strategic financial exposure to a fast-scaling ecosystem partner — the chip order is gone, but the shareholder upside channel remains open.
Can AMD still turn this around?
CEO Lisa Su responded that she respects Musk's decision and expects the two companies to maintain a long-term relationship — measured language, but the door stays open.
When procurement scales to multi-gigawatt levels, infrastructure markets rarely stay static for long; sole-supplier strategies face natural pressure from cost, supply, and architectural constraints.
This means → Su spent nearly a decade turning AMD from Intel's underdog into a real competitor. Whether AMD can replicate that patience in the Nvidia-dominated AI chip market remains to be seen — and SpaceX's shareholding may prove to be a foothold no one should ignore in that long game.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.