SpaceX Revenue More Than Doubles in Third Quarter as AI Business Surges

New York: Elon Musk’s SpaceX reported third-quarter results on Tuesday that comfortably beat market expectations, with revenue more than doubling on the back of rapid growth in its artificial intelligence business and continued expansion at its Starlink satellite-internet unit. The company’s shares rose about 2.5 percent in extended trading after the announcement.

Revenue for the three months ended September 30 rose 161 percent to $14.58 billion, well ahead of the $12.72 billion analysts had forecast, according to data compiled by LSEG. Net income was $4.4 billion, against analysts’ expectations of a $1.57 billion profit. That compares with a net loss of $1.1 billion a year earlier and a net loss of $541 million in the second quarter, when revenue stood at $7.81 billion.

“We are in an inflection moment for SpaceX across launch, connectivity and superintelligence,” Musk told investors on a call following the results.

AI is now the company’s largest business line. AI revenue grew more than ninefold to $7.6 billion, earned mainly by renting data-center computing capacity to other developers rather than from SpaceX’s own models. The unit holds compute contracts with Anthropic, Alphabet’s Google and Reflection AI, which places it closer to a cloud provider than an AI research lab. SpaceX’s AI operations also include the Grok chatbot developed by xAI, the social media platform X, and a fast-growing data-center operation. SpaceX’s own AI products, however, have so far been overshadowed by rivals such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.

The expansion is coming at a high cost. Capital expenditure nearly tripled during the quarter to $19.6 billion, of which $16.4 billion went to AI, and the company expects spending to stay near that level in the near term. The AI unit has recorded large operating losses, and SpaceX has cautioned that it will need sustained investment before the business can consistently generate profits.

Starlink and the company’s broader connectivity operations remain its core financial engine, funding Musk’s AI ambitions. Starlink continued to add subscribers and broaden its services during the quarter. SpaceX is also investing heavily in expanding Starlink coverage and capacity, developing direct-to-device services, and building its Starship rocket, which has yet to enter commercial service. The company noted that revenue from its Falcon launch business can fluctuate with the mix of internal satellite deployments, commercial missions and government contracts.