SpaceX shares rise as data center overhaul and UK defense deal draw focus

September 10, 2026 at 09:00 PM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

SpaceX shares edged higher Thursday as investors weighed a reported overhaul of the company's data center construction and a growing UK defense relationship. The Information reported that a new rocket-division management team is prioritizing reliability over speed, slowing new data center builds. Reuters reported the UK has spent nearly $40 million on SpaceX satellite services, including Starshield.

Key Facts

SpaceX and CEO Elon Musk are overhauling data center construction, with a new rocket-division management team prioritizing reliability over speed.
The UK has spent nearly $40 million on SpaceX satellite services, including about $17.6 million on Starshield and $22.3 million on standard Starlink.
The UK has deployed about 1,000 Starshield terminals and 500 Starlink terminals, becoming the first country outside the US to publicly acknowledge using Starshield.
About 319 million insider shares, roughly 7% of insider stock, became eligible for sale on Wednesday, the 90-day mark since SpaceX's June 12 IPO.
SpaceX went public at $135 a share in June, raising a record $85.7 billion at a $1.77 trillion valuation while floating less than 5% of its stock.

Data Center Overhaul

The Information reported that SpaceX and CEO Elon Musk are overhauling how the company builds its data centers, a shift that could slow the pace of new construction. A new management team from the company's rocket division is prioritizing reliability over speed, installing more backup power and cooling systems, and testing them more thoroughly before the data centers go live. The change is a departure from what Musk and xAI, now part of SpaceX, used to build its Colossus campus in Tennessee, where the AI unit brought its first data center online in just 122 days. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called that timeline "superhuman," but the speed came with trade-offs like frequent outages. A construction-related outage at the Memphis facility last week knocked some Grok models offline and affected compute customers like Anthropic and Google, The Information said.

UK Defense Deal

Reuters reported that the UK has spent nearly $40 million on SpaceX satellite services, deepening the UK's reliance on Musk's company. The Defense Ministry has bought around $17.6 million of Starshield services, the military-grade version of Starlink with enhanced encryption, plus $22.3 million of standard Starlink. The UK has deployed about 1,000 Starshield and 500 Starlink terminals. The UK is the first country outside the US to publicly acknowledge using Starshield.

Share Supply

Thursday's slight gains came even as SpaceX stock absorbed new share supply. About 319 million insider shares, around 7% of insider stock, became eligible for sale on Wednesday, the 90-day mark since SpaceX's June 12th IPO. SpaceX went public at $135 a share in June, raising a record $85.7 billion at a $1.77 trillion valuation, while floating less than 5% of its stock.