SpaceX earned more from artificial intelligence than from its Starlink internet service in the third quarter, a shift that shows how quickly the rocket and satellite company is changing. Total revenue rose 161% to $14.6 billion, and the company swung to a net profit of $4.4 billion from a $1.1 billion loss a year earlier.
The results, the second quarterly report SpaceX has published since it listed its shares, beat Wall Street expectations. Analysts had expected revenue of $12.72 billion and a profit of $1.57 billion, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters. Shares rose 2.5% in extended trading on October 20.
Did SpaceX's AI business earn more than Starlink?
The AI unit, which SpaceX now calls Super Intelligence, brought in $7.56 billion, more than nine times its revenue a year earlier. Most of that money comes from renting data center computing power to other companies. Reuters named Anthropic, Google and Reflection AI among the customers. The unit also includes the Grok chatbot, the X social network and Cursor, a coding tool SpaceX bought during the quarter.
Connectivity, which is mainly Starlink, grew 69% to $5.25 billion. The service ended September with 13.6 million consumer subscribers, up from 7.2 million a year earlier. But each customer pays less. Average monthly revenue per subscriber has dropped to $69 from $99 in 2023, as Starlink adds cheaper plans and expands into poorer markets, Reuters reported.
The space business, which covers rocket launches, grew more slowly, rising to $1.77 billion from $1.67 billion.
How much is SpaceX spending on AI and data centers?
Spending is climbing faster than sales. SpaceX invested $19.6 billion in the quarter, nearly three times the $6.9 billion it spent a year earlier. Of that total, $16.4 billion went into AI and its data centers. On a call with analysts, the company said it expects to spend $35 billion to $40 billion in the fourth quarter as more capacity comes online.
Elon Musk, the company's chief executive, framed the results in broad terms. “We are in an inflection moment for SpaceX across launch, connectivity and superintelligence,” he said, according to Reuters.
Brad Coffman, the chief financial officer, told analysts that new computing capacity pays for itself in less than a year at current prices. SpaceX expects revenue of $33 billion to $37 billion in the first quarter of 2027, according to a call transcript.
Is Starship carrying paying customers yet?
Starship, the company's next-generation rocket, is not yet carrying paying customers. Its first orbital test flight last month released several Starlink satellites, but an engine fault cut the flight short by several hours.
Investors are also waiting for news of a possible merger with Tesla, which reports its own results Wednesday. No deal has been agreed.
Este artículo fue escrito con la asistencia de IA.
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