By Rich Duprey
Publication Date: 2026-08-15 13:41:00
Chipmakers used to sell hardware and cash the check. In 2026, they’re increasingly bankrolling the customers who buy it. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT | MSFT Price Prediction) backs OpenAI. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) backs Anthropic. And Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), the company supplying the picks and shovels for the entire AI gold rush, has quietly become one of the largest shareholders in the companies building the mines. That arrangement raised eyebrows again this week, and the number attached to it is hard to ignore.
Nvidia’s filing yesterday disclosed a stake in Elon Musk’s SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) worth roughly $21 billion at the end of the second quarter. It’s a position that didn’t exist a year ago, and it says a lot about how tightly Nvidia has wired itself into the AI infrastructure boom it helped create.
From xAI to SpaceX: How the Stake Came Together
Nvidia didn’t buy SpaceX stock on the open market. The position traces back to January, when Nvidia put $10 billion into xAI’s $20 billion Series E financing round, joining Valor Equity Partners, the Qatar Investment Authority, and Fidelity as backers of Musk’s AI startup. That looked like a straightforward bet on a large language model company.
Then, in February, SpaceX acquired xAI in an all-stock deal valued at $1.25 trillion, folding the AI startup into Musk’s rocket and satellite business. Every share of xAI converted into SpaceX Class A stock, and Nvidia’s position went along for the ride — landing at…
