Analysis
Nvidia disclosed that its equity stake in SpaceX was worth approximately $21 billion at the end of the second quarter, per CNBC, making it Nvidia's second-largest disclosed equity holding behind only its stake in Intel. The position consists of 122.8 million Class A shares, which trace back to Nvidia's earlier $10 billion investment in xAI -- a stake that converted into SpaceX equity when SpaceX acquired xAI in February in a deal valued at $1.25 trillion. Pulse previously covered xAI's trajectory from an independent Musk venture to a wholly absorbed SpaceX unit, the deal that created this equity position in the first place.
The timing of the disclosure matters as much as the number. It landed the same week Elon Musk told analysts on SpaceX's Q2 earnings call that the company will use Nvidia chips exclusively across its AI data center buildout, tying Nvidia's balance sheet and its supply chain relationship together in a way that makes the equity stake look less like a passive investment and more like a customer-financing arrangement -- the same structure Nvidia has increasingly used with OpenAI, CoreWeave and now SB Energy.
A volatile mark-to-market
The six-week swing in the position's value illustrates how much of Nvidia's investment portfolio now moves with a single private company's valuation:
- June 30 closing price -- $170.86/share, valuing the stake at about $21 billion
- August 14 price -- shares fell to $140, pulling the stake down to roughly $17.2 billion
- Net swing -- an almost $4 billion decline in six weeks Unlike its GPU revenue, which is diversified across thousands of customers, Nvidia's equity book is increasingly concentrated in a handful of AI-adjacent bets: xAI-turned-SpaceX, OpenAI, and a growing list of neoclouds it has taken stakes in or financed directly.
The strategic logic is straightforward -- Nvidia wants its largest customers financially entangled with its own success, and taking equity in exchange for compute commitments locks in both revenue and upside. The risk is equally straightforward: if SpaceX's private valuation corrects the way several AI-adjacent names have this year, Nvidia's own reported earnings could show volatility that has nothing to do with chip demand.
