Donald Harrison, Google's president of global partnerships and corporate development since 2005, has resigned from SpaceX's board of directors, the company announced Friday. A regulatory filing stated the departure was not due to any disagreement with SpaceX regarding operations, policies or practices.
The timing is notable: Harrison's exit comes five months after SpaceX's record IPO, when Alphabet's stake in the private aerospace company has swelled to $74 billion—making the search giant SpaceX's largest institutional investor. SpaceX now trades at roughly $1.8 trillion in market value, a staggering appreciation from Alphabet's initial $12 billion entry in 2015.
But the real economic story lies in Google's operating relationship with SpaceX, not the board seat. Google has committed to paying SpaceX's AI division up to $920 million monthly for compute capacity from data centers near Memphis, Tennessee. That's $11 billion annualized—a sprawling bet on SpaceX's ability to build AI infrastructure at scale.
The two companies recently extended their partnership through Project Suncatcher, a joint effort to deploy Google AI chips into orbit. The initiative signals both companies see satellite-based compute as strategically valuable, though the economics remain unproven at this scale.
Google confirmed in an emailed statement: "While Don is stepping down from the board, we remain deeply supportive of SpaceX's mission and are excited to continue our long-standing partnership." The message underscores that the $11 billion annual compute commitment—not board representation—is where Alphabet's real leverage with SpaceX lies.
