SpaceX (SPCX) stock rose more than 1.5% on Thursday, bucking a broader market decline as investors focused on the company’s growing role in space-based artificial intelligence infrastructure.
SpaceX shares traded near $153, while the S&P 500 fell 0.2%, the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.1%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 215 points, or 0.1%.
The broader market was under pressure as Treasury yields surged.
The 10-year Treasury yield reached an intraday high of 5.342%, its highest level since April 2002, while the 30-year yield climbed to 5.663%, also around levels not seen in roughly 24 years.
Against that backdrop, SpaceX benefited from a major development involving Alphabet’s efforts to move AI computing into orbit.
Google tests AI chips in space
Alphabet plans to launch its homegrown AI chips into orbit Thursday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, marking an important test for the company’s Project Suncatcher initiative.
The launch is scheduled for around 11:15 a.m. PT from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California during the uncrewed Transporter-18 mission.
The mission will carry Planet Labs satellites, including a solar-powered prototype equipped with Google’s tensor processing units, or TPUs.
It will mark the first in-orbit test for Project Suncatcher, a “moonshot” initiative that Alphabet first revealed in November 2025.
The project aims to develop solar-powered AI computing infrastructure capable of operating continuously in space.
Alphabet has described the initiative as an effort to explore whether space could eventually support scalable machine-learning infrastructure.
The concept could offer an alternative to the rapidly expanding data-center infrastructure being built on Earth, where power availability, land constraints and community opposition have become increasingly important considerations for AI companies.
SpaceX plans its own orbital data centers
SpaceX is also developing plans for its own orbital data centers.
The company has said it intends to build and launch swarms of satellites equipped with graphics processing units and solar arrays.
Elon Musk has previously said space-based data centers could eventually become the cheapest way to train AI, arguing that the technology could reach that point within several years.
SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell said at an event in September that the company expects to deploy “supercompute in space” in 2027.
Alphabet is also a significant investor in SpaceX, with its stake currently valued at more than $82 billion.
The companies are partners in space infrastructure while simultaneously competing in parts of the broader AI market.
TD Cowen sees computing driving growth
The potential AI-computing business is increasingly becoming part of the investment case for SpaceX.
TD Cowen analysts led by John Blackledge initiated coverage earlier this week with a Buy rating and a $200 price target, describing computing as the company’s “biggest near-term driver” of revenue.
The near-term opportunity identified by TD Cowen is SpaceX’s ground-based AI computing business, while the company’s orbital data-center ambitions represent a longer-term opportunity.
The brokerage expects roughly 35% of SpaceX’s 2026 sales to come from activities linked to selling computing power.
TD Cowen sees the business potentially overtaking Starlink, which it describes as SpaceX’s “crown jewel,” as early as the first quarter of 2027.
The brokerage forecasts AI compute leasing to account for roughly 60% of SpaceX revenue in 2027 and 65% by 2028.
It also expects SpaceX revenue to grow at a compound annual rate of 62% between 2026 and 2031, while forecasting nearly 1,000 low-Earth-orbit launches by 2031.
Blackledge expects close to half of SpaceX’s planned computing capacity to be leased to external companies over the next several years.
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