SpaceX's AI compute bet looks risky

Aug 05, 2026

SpaceX's stock is sliding after earnings, and its huge pivot into AI data centers looks far shakier than the marketing suggests — bad news for investors buying the hype.

  • SpaceX is now pouring 85% of its spending into AI data centers, not rockets, and just burned through billions with more stock lockups about to let insiders sell.
  • It claims it can build data centers for a fraction of rivals' cost, but that figure only covers empty buildings — add the Nvidia chips and it costs about the same as everyone else, around $25–30 million per megawatt.
  • SpaceX is somehow charging six times the going rate for compute, and the customers paying up — Google and Anthropic — are tangled together: Google owns big stakes in both SpaceX and Anthropic, so overpaying props up SpaceX's stock and benefits Google.
  • These rich contracts can be cancelled on 90 days' notice, so if renters walk, the whole one-year-payback math collapses.
  • Meanwhile the actual rocket business is starving for cash, Falcon is being phased out, and Starship is still a test vehicle years from heavy use.

Outlook: Expect more pressure on the stock as lockups open and doubts grow about whether those sky-high compute deals are real demand or just a scheme to pump the shares.

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