SpaceX swings to $4.4 billion profit as AI unit overtakes Starlink

SpaceX reported stronger-than-expected results after the U.S. market close on Tuesday. Third-quarter revenue jumped 161% to $14.6 billion, beating analyst estimates of about $12.9 billion. Elon Musk's company posted net income of $4.4 billion, or 35 cents a share, after a $541 million loss in the previous quarter. According to Fortune, it was SpaceX's first operating profit since its June stock market debut, at $2.79 billion. Shares rose as much as about 6.6% to $157.59 in after-hours trading.

Growth was driven by the artificial intelligence unit SpaceX Super Intelligence, formed after the acquisition of Musk's xAI. It generated $7.56 billion in revenue, nearly triple the prior quarter, overtaking the satellite internet business for the first time. The unit includes the Grok chatbot and leased computing capacity, with customers including Anthropic and Google, according to Fortune. Connectivity revenue, mostly from Starlink, rose 69% to $5.25 billion, but the 1.6 million consumer subscribers added fell short of expectations. The traditional space business brought in $1.77 billion.

The build-out remains costly, with capital spending reaching $19.6 billion in the quarter. On the earnings call, Musk said SpaceX would sharply expand its data center capacity. "I feel highly confident of 10 gigawatts incremental next year, so 13 total," he said. The company said it had about 1.7 gigawatts at the end of the third quarter. Its Starship rocket is set to fly its 15th test next month, when SpaceX aims to catch both the booster and the upper stage with the launch tower for the first time.