Google's Don Harrison Resigns From SpaceX Board After More Than a Decade

In a regulatory filing, SpaceX said "Mr. Harrison's decision to resign was not due to any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to its operations, policies, or practices," according to CNBC. The company thanked him for his "many contributions and his years of dedicated and outstanding service." Neither company gave any other reason for the move.

The resignation matters because the commercial ties between Google and SpaceX have grown far beyond the original investment. Alphabet is now the largest institutional investor in SpaceX, with a stake worth $74 billion at Friday's close, CNBC said, against a SpaceX market value of about $1.8 trillion. Google is also one of SpaceX's most important customers: it has agreed to pay the company's AI division up to $920 million a month for computing capacity from data centres in the area around Memphis, Tennessee. The two companies also worked together on Project Suncatcher, which put Google AI chips into orbit.

Those links had already drawn attention to Harrison's seat. When SpaceX prepared its stock market listing earlier this year, Reuters reported in a May analysis of the board that he was listed as an independent director since February 2015, making him the longest-tenured non-management director, and that the board had reviewed whether Google's commercial relationships with SpaceX and its investment in the company affected his independence.

Harrison has worked at Google since 2005 and is the company's president of global partnerships and corporate development, the unit that handles its largest commercial alliances and acquisitions. He also sits on the board of Reliance Jio, the Indian telecoms operator, according to the Reuters analysis.

Google said the partnership would continue. "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 company said in an emailed statement.

The change comes about five months after SpaceX went public in the largest initial public offering on record. Since then the company has pushed further into AI infrastructure. On Friday it emerged that SpaceX is seeking approval for a 6GW AI data centre campus in Cochise County, Arizona, a project due before a zoning hearing on December 9.

Alphabet's relationship with SpaceX dates to 2015, when Google invested in the company at a valuation of about $12 billion. That stake has since grown into one of the most valuable holdings on Alphabet's balance sheet, and Friday's filing leaves Google with no executive in SpaceX's boardroom for the first time since that deal.