Elon Musk said SpaceX and Nvidia are targeting an orbital launch of Vera Rubin in 2027, but both stocks fell during the session, with Nvidia down 2.91% and SpaceX closing at $135.

Key points:

  • SpaceX and Nvidia are targeting the fourth quarter of 2027 for the first launch of the Vera Rubin NVL72 optimized for orbit, with ramp-up planned for 2028.

  • Nvidia closed at $208.48 on August 24, while SpaceX finished at its IPO price of $135 before slipping after the close.

  • Vera pairs 88 custom Olympus cores with 1.2 terabytes per second of memory bandwidth for agentic AI workloads.

SpaceX’s orbital AI

SpaceXAI will deploy Nvidia’s Vera processor for agentic AI workloads, extending the foundry’s infrastructure to computing in orbit. Musk clarified on X on August 24 that the space-optimized Vera Rubin NVL72 system is scheduled for a launch in the fourth quarter of 2027, with a “significant ramp” in 2028.

Musk explained that SpaceX worked with Nvidia on a lighter, more compact bay design, adding: “Our design is clearly simpler, less expensive, more dense, and lighter than a traditional bay.”

Nvidia says Vera relies on 88 custom Olympus cores and a memory bandwidth of 1.2 terabytes per second. The CPU acts as the host processor for the Vera Rubin NVL72, paired with Rubin GPUs to accelerate AI workloads.

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Pressure on Nvidia’s stock

Nvidia shares closed down 2.91% at $208.48 on Monday, bringing its decline over five sessions to 5.95%, two days before the quarterly results are published on August 26. The broader weakness in the tech sector also weighed on the stock.

SpaceX shares fell 1.44% to $135, the June IPO price, before dropping another 0.22% to $134.70 in after-hours trading, as investors played down the announcement.

Nvidia vice president Ian Buck describes Vera as a platform designed specifically for agentic AI, where CPUs handle orchestration, tool calls, and data flows around workloads running on GPUs.

He estimates that agents create “a new CPU moment in the AI factory,” which is why Nvidia is expanding its scope beyond just GPUs.

Since its IPO in June, SpaceX has hit a high of $225.64 and an all-time low of $104.83 on August 3, before returning to its offer price of $135. This range shows how volatile post-IPO trading remains, in the short term, a more decisive factor than a single partnership announcement.

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