Elon Musk’s SpaceX reported second-quarter revenue of $7.8 billion, up 92% year-over-year, beating Wall Street’s consensus estimate of approximately $6.9 billion in the rocket company’s first earnings report as a public company since its June IPO.
The revenue surge was driven by two core engines: Starlink satellite internet and the company’s rapidly scaling AI business. Starlink revenue rose 66% to $4.29 billion, accounting for more than half of total revenue, while Starlink subscribers doubled year-over-year to 12 million. AI revenue jumped 247% to $2.56 billion, fueled by $14.1 billion in new cloud services agreements with customers including Anthropic, Google, and Reflection AI.
Beyond the top-line beat, SpaceX improved its profitability metrics. The company’s net loss narrowed to $541 million from $1.008 billion a year earlier, according to an SEC filing. Adjusted EBITDA nearly tripled to $3.5 billion. These improvements signaled that SpaceX’s core Starlink business could fund the company’s ambitious AI and infrastructure expansion, at least in the near term.
During the earnings call on August 4, CEO Elon Musk disclosed that SpaceX’s internal revenue projections had been revised upward since the June IPO. “Our internal projections for reaching $1 trillion in revenue—not annualized revenue run rate, but revenue—have moved up from 2031 to 2030,” Musk said, adding there was “a non-zero chance” it could happen in 2029. CFO Bret Johnson said the company now expects to reach a $100 billion annualized revenue run rate by December 2026.
The Capex Question Shadows the Beat
Despite the strong results, SpaceX shares fell 5% to 13% in after-hours trading. The primary culprit was capital expenditure, which ballooned to $18.4 billion in Q2 alone—more than six times the $2.83 billion spent a year earlier. AI capex jumped to $15.83 billion from $749 million, as SpaceX raced to build compute capacity to support its data center operations.
Finance chief Johnson signaled the spending would continue, telling investors to expect capital spending at similar levels for the next couple of quarters. At that run rate, SpaceX’s annualized capex would exceed $73 billion—far above the $48.7 billion consensus analysts had expected. Investors have shown limited patience for heavy spending without near-term returns, a sentiment that weighed on SpaceX shares after the first earnings report, even as the company improved its AI operating loss.
The company projects it will have built more than 2 gigawatts of computing capacity by year-end 2026 and close to 10 gigawatts by the end of 2027, all using Nvidia hardware exclusively. Musk highlighted SpaceX’s planned orbital AI satellite, which he said would launch next year and allow the company to place AI data centers in orbit, lowering costs below competitors.
The stock decline also reflected broader concerns about SpaceX’s valuation. At its June IPO, the company was valued at approximately $1.75 trillion. Since then, the stock has fallen roughly 50% from its peak of $211, though it has recovered from post-earnings lows. An additional headwind arrived when SpaceX’s post-IPO lockup period expired on August 6, unlocking approximately 900 million shares for early investors to sell—a block larger than the entire IPO issuance itself.
Sources
- Fortune — SpaceX Q2 revenue of $7.8B, beat of ~$900M, Starlink and AI revenue growth, capex details, Musk’s $1T revenue timeline, adjusted EBITDA
- Reuters — Q2 revenue $7.8B vs $4.1B prior year, Starlink revenue $4.29B up 66%, AI revenue 247% growth, capex $18.4B, net loss narrowed, subscriber growth to 12M, stock reaction, lockup expiry
- SEC Filing — Net loss $541M vs $1.008B, adjusted EBITDA $3.5B, revenue breakdown by segment
- Bloomberg — Capex details, capital spending commentary
- Zacks Investment Research — AI revenue $2.56B, 247% growth, AI capex $15.83B
