Elon Musk is doing what he always does: pushing up timelines.
The SpaceX (SPCX) CEO took to X.com to update the timeline for when the rocket company's first AI-powered satellites would launch.
"SpaceX, in partnership with Nvidia, has designed a space-optimized Vera Rubin NVL72 system for launch to orbit in Q4 next year, with significant scale in 2028," he said in a post on Monday afternoon.
SpaceX stock was higher in early trade on Tuesday.
Musk's post comes on the heels of yesterday's announcement that SpaceX and Nvidia (NVDA) would be deploying NVIDIA Vera processors "to accelerate the orchestration, code execution, and data processing that powers its next generation of agentic AI."
The companies have worked together in the past, and earlier this year announced that Nvidia chips would power SpaceX's coming AI satellites, AKA orbital data centers.
SpaceX had in the past said it would target 2028 for the launch of these satellites, but Musk's new timeline pulls that forward to Q4 2027, with volume launches in 2028.
Wall Street is positioned for SpaceX to hit these timelines much later and is quite bullish on the prospects.
"From 2029 on, we expect SpaceX to pursue orbital compute towards ~75GW by the end of 2031 at a significantly cheaper cost than could be done on Earth," JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday. "We believe significant upside potential remains as the company quite literally builds out the next frontier."
Musk has been known to issue aggressive timelines that subsequently aren't hit. Look to past timelines for Tesla's Cybertruck, the Tesla Semi, and the still unreleased next-gen Tesla Roadster.
Another key challenge for ramping up orbital data center deployment is how SpaceX will get the payload into space. SpaceX's powerful Starship rocket is slated to carry the satellites into space, however it is still in its testing phase.
Though the rocket had a successful test launch and release of some Starlink satellites, it still hasn't hit the high altitude orbit necessary for some satellite launches, and only the booster portion of the rocket has landed safely thus far at the launch pad.
Nevertheless, an updated timeline for orbital data centers is good news for SpaceX investors.
Interestingly, the news about SpaceX and its Nvidia partnership comes a day before Nvidia will release highly-anticipated quarterly earnings after the bell on Wednesday. Any hiccups in Nvidia's outlook or performance in its AI and data center business could put significant strain on the tech and AI trade, in addition to the broader market, which is still trading near all-time highs.
Pras Subramanian is Lead Transportation Reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on X and on Instagram.
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