The upcoming SpaceX IPO should make history. There are already ways to invest in SpaceX today. But these methods are largely buying shares that have already been issued. The IPO, meanwhile, will issue new SpaceX shares, meaning that the proceeds will go directly to the company's bank account, minus a chunk of underwriting and other miscellaneous fees.
In total, the SpaceX IPO could net the company somewhere between $50 billion and $75 billion. That's a huge amount of new capital that the company should put to work almost immediately. SpaceX has huge visions for the future, everything from scaling up its massive Starship rocket to establishing a base on the moon. The rocket company could even look to build AI data centers in space.
Expect all of SpaceX's IPO proceeds to eventually end up in other companies' pockets. This spending spree, which could total up to $75 billion, should directly benefit two AI stocks in particular.
NASDAQ: NVDA
Key Data Points
1. The SpaceX IPO makes Nvidia an obvious winner
SpaceX is a huge purchaser of specialized AI chips like GPUs. The largest GPU maker in the world right now is Nvidia (NVDA 0.48%). By some estimates, Nvidia controls roughly 85% of the market for AI chips.
SpaceX is so reliant on these specialized chips that it eventually plans to produce them in-house, spending billions of dollars over the next few years to scale up manufacturing infrastructure. But until that infrastructure is up and running, expect SpaceX to continue buying Nvidia's chips. Indeed, Elon Musk recently stressed that SpaceX will continue buying Nvidia's chips "at scale" for some time.
What exactly does SpaceX need Nvidia's chips for? Well, almost everything. For one, SpaceX currently owns xAI, Musk's AI start-up. That division alone is regularly in the market for tens of billions of dollars worth of Nvidia chips. Nvidia's chips are also critical to SpaceX's core business of launching rockets to space -- a data-intensive task that AI can help with dramatically.
In short, SpaceX is already a major consumer of Nvidia's products. With $50 billion to $75 billion in fresh capital, expect Nvidia to end up a huge winner post-IPO.
Image source: Getty Images.
2. A boost for xAI is a boost for Tesla's self-driving future
I already covered why one of Musk's other companies, Tesla (TSLA +2.45%), will benefit from the SpaceX IPO. In that article, I explained a few ways Tesla should win:
I wouldn't be surprised to see a multibillion-dollar order by SpaceX for Tesla's robotics. And because both companies have the same CEO, these orders can be executing earlier than most outside customers could stomach, with more room for patience if Tesla struggles to deliver on time. SpaceX also could purchase Tesla's megapacks to power its Moonbase infrastructure. Tesla's semitrucks, meanwhile, could be used at scale for material deliveries.
But there's another sneaky way in which Tesla should benefit: by leveraging the technology that SpaceX develops using its new cash hoard.
Tesla already has a stake in xAI, investing $2 billion into the venture before SpaceX's takeover earlier this year. The stake was meant to give Tesla direct access to xAI's models, which may prove critical in helping the company achieve fully autonomous self-driving capabilities. Much of Tesla's valuation right now is tied up in its robotaxi division, which some experts believe could be tapping a $10 trillion opportunity.
For now, we don't know much about how intertwined Tesla's technology is with xAI's. But with a huge influx of capital, xAI's models should receive a huge boost. As a supplier of AI to Tesla, xAI's success should have direct benefits for Tesla's growth plans.
