You Can Do Better Than SpaceX Right Now. Here Are 2 Stocks to Buy Instead.

The article highlights Rivian and NuScale Power as higher-upside alternatives to SpaceX, citing Rivian's sub-$50,000 R2 SUV launch and AI/autonomous driving ambitions, plus NuScale's $3.7B market cap versus a potential $10T nuclear energy opportunity. The piece is largely opinion-driven stock-picking commentary rather than new company-specific disclosures, so near-term market impact should be limited.

Analysis

The real tradeable insight here is not that SpaceX is expensive; it’s that the article is using a private-market success story as a valuation anchor for public equities with very different capital structures and terminal value optionality. The cleaner second-order winner is the “picks-and-shovels” layer around AI energy buildout and autonomy, where public-market pricing still leaves room for operating leverage. SMR benefits from the market’s desire to fund power at any cost, but its path to monetization is binary and slow, so the stock will likely trade on sentiment bursts rather than fundamentals for the next 6-18 months.

RIVN is more interesting on a relative basis than an absolute one. A sub-$50k product is a necessary step, not a sufficient one, because the real value creation depends on whether the company can convert product cadence into a credible software/margin narrative before the market’s patience runs out. If execution slips, the stock risks becoming a chronic capital-raise story; if the launch is clean and unit economics inflect, it can rerate sharply because the float is still small enough for incremental demand to matter.

The contrarian miss is that “SpaceX expensive” does not automatically make SMR or RIVN cheap. SMR in particular has a long-duration financing problem: the higher-rate environment makes pre-revenue infrastructure names look far less attractive once the narrative fades, and any delay in project approvals can compress multiples fast. On the other side, TSLA’s inclusion here matters mainly as a reference point: if autonomy enthusiasm broadens, Tesla remains the cleaner liquid hedge on the theme, while RIVN remains the higher-beta expression with much worse downside if robotaxi expectations are deferred.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Go long SMR only as a tactical 3-6 month momentum trade, not a core position; use tight downside controls because the stock can reprice 20-30% on financing or permitting setbacks.
• Consider a relative-value pair: long TSLA / short RIVN for a 6-12 month horizon if the market starts rewarding autonomy optionality over execution risk; this captures theme exposure while limiting idiosyncratic OEM risk.
• If entering RIVN, wait for evidence of demand validation around the new lower-priced model rather than pre-positioning; the reward is a rerating on milestone beats, but the downside is dilution if volume ramps disappoint.
• Avoid chasing SMR after sharp narrative spikes; prefer buying post-pullback when the market is pricing in a longer commercialization timeline, as the option-like upside is best captured with patience.
• For more conservative exposure to the AI power buildout, look through SMR volatility toward utilities or infrastructure beneficiaries with contracted cash flows; the risk/reward is lower beta but materially better survivability than pre-scale nuclear development.