JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon said on Monday that SpaceX’s plan to build artificial-intelligence data centers in orbit could work, offering a prominent Wall Street endorsement as the newly public company’s shares hover near their IPO price. Dimon called Starlink an "extraordinary product" after visiting SpaceX operations, stating he had seen numbers on the space-based data centers that support their economic potential. JPMorgan helped market SpaceX’s record $75 billion IPO, which priced at $135 per share in June.

Orbital Computing’s Economic Potential

Dimon shared his assessment on "The Master Investor Podcast with Wilfred Frost." He argued that orbital computing could leverage cheap solar power, reduce cooling expenses, and bypass constraints facing ground-based facilities. While acknowledging the difficulty of returning data to Earth, Dimon noted that laser links could redirect transmissions between satellites to mitigate cloud interference at receiving sites.

Technical And Commercial Risks Remain Unresolved

SpaceX operates more than 10,000 Starlink satellites, the world’s largest low-Earth-orbit communications network. Elon Musk plans to test orbital AI computing by the end of 2027 using technology derived largely from Starlink V3 spacecraft. Musk has described solar-powered orbital data centers as a "no-brainer" and indicated SpaceX could fly the first systems next year.

The concept remains unproven. SpaceX warned in its IPO filing that orbital data centers may never become commercially viable. Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman has called the idea "pretty far" from reality, citing launch capacity and payload costs as significant barriers.

Investors Debate Valuation As Shares Retreat

Investors remain divided over the company’s prospects. Deepwater Management Managing Partner Gene Munster has argued that SpaceX’s rockets, satellites, and AI stack create a "sovereign AI" advantage that competitors cannot easily match. Conversely, The Future Fund LLC’s Gary Black has focused on valuation, cautioning that investors should not pay roughly 150 times projected 2026 EBITDA.

SpaceX shares recently slipped below their IPO price after reaching a high of $225.64 on June 16. Short sellers accumulated an estimated $8.7 billion in paper gains as the stock declined. Dimon’s praise follows a major thaw in his relationship with Musk, whom he called "our Einstein" in 2025 and later "the Edison of our time." Musk recently replied to a viral post reviving the comparison with, "Thanks, Jamie!"

Former Wedbush technology analyst Dan Ives stated that SpaceX is becoming an indispensable artificial intelligence and data infrastructure company, calling Elon Musk’s rocket maker a foundational pillar of the "fourth industrial revolution" despite its volatile start as a publicly traded company. Ives urged investors to judge the company over several years rather than its first weeks following the June IPO, comparing the situation to the early trading periods of Amazon and Facebook.

Speaking with Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi on Thursday, Ives acknowledged that "the valuation support is not there." He emphasized that investors should focus on what SpaceX could become over the next two to five years. Ives, who left Wedbush this month to launch an investment-banking venture, compared the company’s execution challenges to those of other prominent technology listings such as Anthropic and OpenAI, noting that execution is the primary risk and reward factor.

Ives reiterated his view that SpaceX will eventually acquire Tesla Inc., raising the probability of such a transaction to above 80%. "This is essentially Musk," Ives said. "A lot of it is really… betting on Musk." Early SpaceX investor Chamath Palihapitiya supported this view, stating there is "a very obvious industrial logic" to combining SpaceX and Tesla under one capital structure and balance sheet.

Investor Gary Black pushed back against the merger thesis, arguing that Musk’s 82% voting control does not release SpaceX directors from fiduciary duties to all shareholders. Black noted that at current valuations, an all-stock purchase of Tesla could dilute SpaceX holders by roughly 25%. "The math won’t pass muster," he wrote. No transaction has been announced, and any combination would require board review, valuation work, and likely regulatory scrutiny.

The debate precedes Tesla’s second-quarter results report scheduled for July 22 after the closing bell. Wall Street expects earnings of 32 cents per share on revenue of $26.02 billion. SpaceX stock is currently trading about 2.8% lower than its IPO price of $135 per share.

Key Market Expectations for Tesla