SpaceX · AI · 15 Nov 2026
Musk says his Nvidia deals ran on Jensen Huang's word. Here's how much of SpaceX's AI now rests on Nvidia
Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia's CEO on 11 Nov. On Saturday, Elon Musk said many of the supply deals Huang struck were "a handshake with Jensen, not a written contract," and that "at least some of those critical deals will be lost." He added that his own requests to Huang worked the same way, with purchase orders following later. Nvidia's board says the opposite: customer commitments will "continue without interruption." SpaceX has a lot riding on which of them is right.
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The editor holds Tesla and SpaceX shares. Supercharged Daily is independent and not affiliated with either company or with Nvidia. Nothing here is financial advice.
What happened at Nvidia
Nvidia's Form 8-K says the board accepted Huang's resignation as president, CEO and director on 11 Nov 2026, effective immediately. The company announced it on 12 Nov. CFO Colette Kress is interim CEO while the board searches, and longtime director Harvey C. Jones is Nvidia's first-ever board chair. The AP reports that he left after reports of extramarital affairs, one of which the New York Times said involved a woman U.S. intelligence suspects of spying for China. Beijing denies that.
Nvidia's release includes this line from Jones: "we expect the company's operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption."
What Musk said
Musk has backed Huang all week. On Friday, 13 Nov, at 3:51 p.m. ET (12:51 p.m. PT), he wrote that "a petition is underway to reinstate Jensen and I'm signing it too." On Saturday morning he quoted a clip of SemiAnalysis founder Dylan Patel, who says Huang personally talked small suppliers into selling their output to Nvidia.
Jensen drove supply chain brilliantly at Nvidia, but many of those deals were a handshake with Jensen, not a written contract.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 14, 2026
Without Jensen, at least some of those critical deals will be lost.
Forty-three minutes later he made it about himself:
If Jensen gave me his word about compute delivery or I asked for components to be accelerated, he always came through.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 14, 2026
Sure, we’d put together a purchase order at some point later, but I never for a second thought it wouldn’t happen.
That's the head of one of Nvidia's best-known AI customers saying publicly that at least some of his compute deliveries were agreed by word first and put on paper afterwards. He didn't say which deals or how much hardware, and SpaceX hasn't filed anything about it.
SpaceX's Nvidia exposure, in one table
| What | Nvidia hardware | Timing | On paper? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colossus 2, Memphis: Macroharder, Minihard, Gun Range (training) | 220,000 GB300s each, per Musk on 31 Oct | Gun Range "tracking to be operational by end of November" | Musk's description; no SpaceX filing on the supply terms |
| Colossus 2: Spam (inference) | About 200,000 GB300s, per the same post | December | Same |
| Apollo lease | "The next generation of NVIDIA Vera Rubin chips," per SpaceX's release | Leases start as hardware arrives in the first half of 2027 | Binding commitment letter signed 24 Oct; master lease expected to close before year-end (8-K) |
| Google rental | About 110,000 Nvidia GPUs that SpaceX rents to Google for $920 million a month | Through June 2029 | Yes (SpaceX filing, 5 Jun) |
| Starmind AI1 satellites | Nvidia Rubin GPUs and Vera CPUs, co-designed with Nvidia (SpaceX, 4 Aug) | Musk says the computer reaches volume production in 2027 (15 Oct) | Partnership announced; no contract terms published |
Compiled from the linked SpaceX filings and posts, as of 15 Nov 2026. The Memphis counts are Musk's figures, not audited numbers.
Adding up Musk's own numbers gives about 860,000 GB300s across the four Memphis buildings (my math: three buildings at 220,000 plus about 200,000). Roughly 420,000 of them, close to half, sit in Gun Range and Spam, the two buildings he says come online in late November and December. He hasn't said whether those chips are already on site.
The Google contract runs the other way: it's money coming in for Nvidia hardware that SpaceX rents out. At $920 million a month it comes to about $11.04 billion a year (my math).
Where a lost handshake would hurt
My read, not anything SpaceX or Nvidia has said: the part most exposed to Musk's worry is anything not yet delivered that was agreed informally. That most likely means the rest of the GB300s for Gun Range and Spam, plus any "accelerated" components he asked Huang for. The Vera Rubin hardware looks safer, because a signed $40 billion financing with Apollo and big Wall Street backers sits behind it. The 8-K, though, covers the money. It doesn't describe the supply agreement with Nvidia, and neither has been published.
Musk also isn't a neutral witness. He's publicly campaigning to get Huang reinstated, and saying deals will be lost without him helps that case. Nvidia's board has every reason to say the opposite. Neither side has given details.
SpaceX has a long-term hedge in Terafab, the chip fab it's planning with Tesla, and it describes the Starmind design as chip-vendor agnostic. Neither helps in the next six weeks.
What to watch
- Tuesday, 17 Nov: Nvidia reports quarterly results at about 4:20 p.m. ET (1:20 p.m. PT), with the call at 5 p.m. ET (2 p.m. PT), per Nvidia. It's Kress's first call as interim CEO. Any comment on customer commitments or supply will matter.
- Wednesday, 18 Nov: Kress told employees the company will hold a staff meeting, Reuters reports.
- End of November: whether Gun Range comes online on Musk's schedule.
- Before 31 Dec: the closing filing for the Apollo lease.
Whose version do you believe, Musk's handshake warning or Nvidia's "without interruption"?
— Alex R
Sources: Nvidia Form 8-K (event 11 Nov 2026); Nvidia newsroom, 12 Nov 2026; AP; Reuters via Investing.com; Elon Musk on X (13 Nov, 14 Nov, 14 Nov, 31 Oct, 15 Oct); SpaceX release and 8-K on the Apollo lease (26 Oct 2026); SpaceX filing on the Google agreement (5 Jun 2026); @SpaceX on Starmind AI1 (4 Aug 2026). Table, totals and analysis are my own. Hero photo: Anderseidesvik, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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