SpaceX Adds $13.3 Billion Compute Contract as Data-Center Shake-Up Tests Its Delivery Machine
Published on 09/12/2026 at 06:20 | Editorial boerse-global.de
SpaceX used the Goldman Sachs technology conference stage to unveil a fourth major AI computing customer this year — an unnamed client that will pay roughly $1.11 billion per month for processing capacity starting December 1. Annualized, that single agreement is worth about $13.3 billion, CFO Bret Johnsen told attendees.
Stacked against the company's existing compute-leasing book, the new signature pushes total annualized revenue from such contracts to approximately $41.1 billion. Anthropic already commits $1.25 billion a month through May 2029, while Google Cloud pays $920 million monthly. Johnsen reiterated the broader target of a $100 billion annualized revenue run rate by the end of 2026, a figure the fresh deal alone would cover by roughly 13%.
Capacity, Not Demand, Is the Constraint
Compute capacity stood at 1.4 gigawatts as of June 30. Management expects to clear 2 gigawatts by the close of 2026 and then scale to between 5 and 10 gigawatts in 2027. Deutsche Bank analyst Edison Yu called the $100 billion goal "highly achievable" given the cloud business and the Cursor acquisition. DIGITIMES, however, flagged a different hurdle: whether SpaceX can genuinely scale at that pace depends less on construction speed than on the redundancy built into its Colossus infrastructure.
That concern is no longer theoretical. Jake Palmer, Zach Wells and Pablo Mendoza have left their posts overseeing the AI data-center build-out after months of cooling and power-supply failures at sites in Tennessee and Mississippi, according to Venture Atlas and The Information. Wesley Salandro and Logan McConnell now run day-to-day operations, with Michael Nicolls installed to supervise xAI.
The reshuffle lands at an awkward moment. The Information and CNBC both report that SpaceX must deliver committed GPU capacity by September 30, 2026 under its Google arrangement — the same $920 million-per-month deal. Miss that deadline, and after a one-month grace period Google can either terminate or accept a reduced volume at prorated fees. Choosing redundancy over raw construction speed, as the company now intends, only tightens an already compressed timeline.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying SpaceX?
AI Revenue Surges, but the Build-Out Shows Cracks
The leadership change exposes the flip side of breakneck expansion. SpaceX booked $2.6 billion in AI revenue in the second quarter of 2026, up 247% year over year, against that 1.4 gigawatt installed base. Total quarterly revenue of $7.81 billion comfortably beat the $6.93 billion analysts had projected, CNBC noted.
Running sites for months without backup cooling or power is a risk few capital-intensive businesses with marquee partners like Google would tolerate. Bringing in new operational leadership signals a pivot toward reliability — even if it costs speed in the near term.
Beyond the data centers, SpaceX confirmed in early September that it will build a foundry for turbine blades, a project Elon Musk said could make gas turbines ready up to 18 months sooner. Musk called it a "profound game-changer," according to the Wall Street Journal. The company also closed its Cursor (Anysphere) acquisition in mid-August, issuing roughly 389 million new Class A shares worth about $60 billion — another marker of its aggressive, equity-funded expansion.
Share Supply Meets a Stretched Valuation
On the capital-markets side, 319 million insider shares worth around $48 billion became tradable under staggered post-IPO lock-up schedules, with several hundred million more Class A shares released this week as additional lock-ups expired.
The stock closed Friday at EUR 130.32, up 2.1% on the day, and has gained 3.0% over the past 30 days — putting it about 11% above its 50-day moving average. It still sits roughly a third below its June high. In the secondary article's reading, the shares traded near flat at EUR 128.02, about 9.5% above a 50-day average of EUR 116.86, and 34% below the 52-week high of EUR 194.46.
Valuation remains the flashpoint. About 80% of analysts rate the stock Buy or Strong Buy, yet skeptics point to a price-to-sales ratio near 95 — far above the S&P 500's roughly 4. The company is still unprofitable: the second quarter brought a $541 million net loss alongside $18.4 billion in capital expenditures.
Longer term, SpaceX wants to move some of that compute into orbit. Johnsen said the first orbital compute satellites should launch in 2027, with scaling planned for 2028. A next Starship flight carrying new V3 Starlink satellites is also on deck, with a date floated for late September.
For investors, the picture splits cleanly. A fast-growing AI order book sits on one side; a valuation that already discounts plenty of growth, plus operating losses that must shrink as data centers come online, sits on the other.
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