On Monday, Elon Musk officially confirmed a strategic alliance between SpaceX and NVIDIA, announcing the launch of the specialized Vera Rubin computing system into space as early as 2027. However, contrary to expectations, the market reacted extremely negatively to this news: shares of both corporations showed a confident decline.
What lies behind the ambitious Vera Rubin project
The essence of the partnership is the deployment of NVIDIA's new Vera processor for the needs of the SpaceXAI division. This is a fundamentally new approach: the chip architecture, originally created for terrestrial data centers, will now be adapted for operation in space conditions. Musk does not hide his enthusiasm, calling Vera "the first processor for AI agents" and emphasizing that it is designed to radically accelerate coordination, code writing, and data processing for SpaceX's autonomous systems.
According to him, the new design is "significantly simpler, cheaper, more compact, and lighter than a traditional server rack." The technical specifications are impressive: 88 proprietary NVIDIA Olympus cores, memory bandwidth of up to 1.2 TB/s, and a promise to increase performance in AI tasks by 1.8 times compared to comparable x86 architecture processors. Moreover, SpaceXAI plans to integrate the chip with the Vera Rubin platform to scale Grok infrastructure to one gigawatt of computing power.
Market reaction: why investors did not believe
Nevertheless, the entrepreneur's positive sentiment did not resonate with stock market players. NVIDIA shares fell by 2.91% to $208.48, continuing the downward trend. Over the past five trading sessions, the value of the securities has decreased by 5.95%. The correction began two days before the publication of NVIDIA's financial report, scheduled for August 26.
SpaceX (SPCX) shares also closed in the red, losing 1.44% and dropping to $135, and after the main session they fell another 0.22% to $134.70. This indicates that even such a high-profile announcement could not reverse the negative backdrop surrounding the companies.
NVIDIA shares are trading near the lower boundary of the annual range. Investors are concerned about rising memory costs and ongoing uncertainty regarding exports to China. SpaceX, in turn, is below its offering price of $135 and significantly lags the June peak of $225.64, although it has recovered part of the decline from the historical low of $104.83 recorded on August 3.
My view: The decline in shares looks natural. The market is currently much more concerned with fundamental factors — NVIDIA's upcoming earnings report and SpaceX's post-IPO volatility — than with loud but long-term promises. The partnership announcement is more of a strategic signal than an immediate growth driver. Investors should wait for the financial results before betting on this alliance, no matter how technologically groundbreaking it may seem.