Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) shares jumped over 7% Friday after Elon Musk’s rocket company completed three launches in less than 13 hours, sending astronauts, a classified U.S. intelligence payload and Google’s first orbital AI experiment into space.
The launches spanned three major parts of SpaceX’s business, while the Google payload offered an early glimpse at another market Musk is targeting: AI computing in space.
SpaceX Launches 3 Rockets in 13 Hours
The run began at 11:10 a.m. ET Thursday, when a Falcon 9 launched NASA’s Crew-13 mission carrying four astronauts to the International Space Station.
At 2:32 p.m. ET, another Falcon 9 lifted off from California carrying 130 payloads on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission.
SpaceX finished the day at 11:54 p.m. ET with a Falcon Heavy launch carrying NROL-97, a classified National Reconnaissance Office mission. It was the first NRO payload to fly aboard Falcon Heavy.
Google Tests AI Computing in Space
Among Transporter-18’s payloads was a prototype satellite for Project Suncatcher, an orbital AI experiment from Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG).
Google is testing whether the chips used to run AI systems can eventually operate at scale in orbit. The company said Thursday it had made contact with the satellite and that it was operating as expected.
The mission will test how four of Google’s Tensor Processing Units, its in-house AI chips, handle launch, radiation and extreme temperatures in space.
SpaceX Wants to Build Orbital AI Infrastructure
SpaceX is pursuing the same opportunity itself.
Musk said this week that SpaceX’s planned Starmind satellites could eventually carry more than 250 kilowatts of solar power, more than the International Space Station. SpaceX is also working with Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) on an optimized version of Nvidia’s Vera Rubin AI hardware.
That could give SpaceX two ways to benefit if orbital computing takes off: launching other companies’ hardware and operating AI infrastructure of its own.
Prediction-market traders remain unconvinced that orbital data centers are close. Kalshi traders put the chance of a one-megawatt data center going live in orbit before 2035 at 36%.
Relm Insurance VP Andrew Bonwick told Benzinga this week that AI in space was likely “overestimated,” saying a one-megawatt orbital data center was plausible but deployment at scale was another matter.
SpaceX shares were up about 7% at $159 Friday afternoon after closing Thursday at $148.07.
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