According to a Liberty Times (LTN) report citing NVIDIA's SEC filing, NVIDIA held about 128.8 million Class A shares of SpaceX as of the end of the second quarter, making it SpaceX's sixth-largest investor. CNYES reported the stake was valued at roughly $21 billion at quarter-end — a position trailing only NVIDIA's Intel holding among its disclosed equity stakes.
How NVIDIA Became SpaceX's Second-Largest Shareholder: Stake Size and Ranking
NVIDIA's SpaceX position surfaced through a regulatory disclosure covering the quarter ended in mid-2026. According to Liberty Times (LTN), citing NVIDIA's SEC filing, NVIDIA held 128.8 million Class A shares of SpaceX as of the end of the second quarter. CNYES, reporting on the same filing, put the figure at 122.8 million Class A shares — a discrepancy between the two outlets' accounts of the identical disclosure that readers should note.
Both outlets agree on NVIDIA's standing among SpaceX investors: citing FactSet data, LTN and CNYES both describe NVIDIA as SpaceX's sixth-largest investor. CNYES additionally reported that the stake was valued at approximately $21 billion at the end of the second quarter, a figure LTN also cited.
Where the Stake Came From: How the xAI Investment Linked NVIDIA to SpaceX
LTN reported that NVIDIA's SpaceX shares did not come from a direct investment in SpaceX. Instead, they originated from a $10 billion investment NVIDIA made in xAI, Elon Musk's AI company, in January 2026 — part of a larger $20 billion funding round xAI was raising at the time. CNYES, citing sources familiar with the matter, corroborated the same sequence.
SpaceX then acquired xAI in February at a valuation of $1.25 trillion, according to both LTN and CNYES. That acquisition converted NVIDIA's xAI stake into SpaceX equity — explaining why a chipmaker ended up as a top-six shareholder of a rocket and satellite company.
Value Comparison: How NVIDIA's SpaceX Stake Stacks Up Against Its Intel Holding
LTN and CNYES both reported that NVIDIA's single largest equity holding remains Intel, not SpaceX. At quarter-end, the Intel stake was worth $30 billion; by Friday, August 14, its value had fallen to about $22 billion. Both outlets also noted that NVIDIA's original investment in Intel was $5 billion, made less than a year before the filing — meaning the $22 billion current value still reflects a large paper gain on that outlay.
| Holding | Original investment | Value at Q2-end | Value on Aug 14 |
|---|
| Intel | $5 billion | $30 billion | $22 billion |
| SpaceX | $10 billion (via xAI) | $21 billion | $17.2 billion |
Sources: LTN, CNYES.
Among the two positions with disclosed dollar values in this reporting, Intel's stake exceeded SpaceX's at every point measured — consistent with LTN and CNYES describing SpaceX as NVIDIA's second-largest holding, trailing only Intel.
SpaceX's Stock Performance Since Its June IPO
CNYES reported that SpaceX went public on the open market in June 2026. At the end of June, SpaceX shares traded at $170.86, according to both LTN and CNYES. By Friday, August 14, the stock had fallen to $140.
That decline is what pulled NVIDIA's SpaceX stake down from about $21 billion at quarter-end to roughly $17.2 billion, per both outlets' calculations. Based on the disclosed prices, SpaceX shares fell approximately 18% between the end of June and August 14 — a decline that tracks closely with the roughly 18% drop in the reported value of NVIDIA's stake over the same window.
SpaceX's Shareholder Lineup: Musk, Alphabet, and NVIDIA Compared
Per CNYES, citing FactSet data, Elon Musk is SpaceX's largest shareholder by a wide margin, with a stake valued at approximately $850 billion. Alphabet ranks second among shareholders, with a stake valued at about $78 billion. NVIDIA, despite its $21 billion position at quarter-end, ranks only sixth on SpaceX's investor list.
| Shareholder | Rank | Stake value |
|---|
| Elon Musk | 1st | ~$850 billion |
| Alphabet | 2nd | ~$78 billion |
| NVIDIA | 6th | ~$21 billion (Q2-end) |
Source: CNYES, citing FactSet.
Musk's Chip Purchasing Plans: Why SpaceX Is Buying Into NVIDIA GPUs
Both LTN and CNYES reported on comments Musk made during SpaceX's second-quarter earnings call earlier this month. Per LTN, Musk said SpaceX's AI data centers would in the future rely completely on NVIDIA chips, arguing NVIDIA's GPUs have "the best architecture" for AI model training, inference, and related products and services. CNYES reported the same remarks.
On the same call, per both outlets, Musk said he expects SpaceX to receive a "large allocation" of NVIDIA's Vera Rubin GPUs next year.
What the Disclosures Show
Taken together, the filings and earnings-call remarks link two separate NVIDIA bets on Musk's businesses. The SpaceX equity now on NVIDIA's books did not come from investing in SpaceX directly — it traces back to a $10 billion bet on xAI in January that became SpaceX stock only after SpaceX's $1.25 trillion acquisition of xAI in February. That $21 billion position (falling to $17.2 billion as SpaceX shares slid from $170.86 to $140) sits behind only NVIDIA's Intel stake — $30 billion falling to $22 billion over the same stretch — among the two dollar-valued holdings in this reporting, even though NVIDIA ranks just sixth among SpaceX's own investors by FactSet's count, far behind Musk's $850 billion stake and Alphabet's $78 billion position. "Second-largest holding," in other words, describes NVIDIA's own portfolio, not its rank on SpaceX's cap table. The same reporting period also carried Musk's remarks about SpaceX's AI data centers fully adopting NVIDIA chips and an expected "large allocation" of Vera Rubin GPUs next year — disclosures that place NVIDIA's equity position and its role as SpaceX's AI hardware supplier side by side.