SpaceX posts first operating profit as public company as AI revenue nearly

Leases, the Cursor acquisition, Grok, and reported deals with Anthropic and Google pushed AI revenue past Starlink for the first time as a public company. Elon Musk’s SpaceX said Tuesday that third quarter revenue rose 161% to $14.6 billion year-over-year, cruising past the $12.86 billion analysts expected, according to Visible Alpha consensus from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The company reported net income of $4.4 million, or 35 cents a share compared with a net loss of $541 million in the second quarter and $5.5 billion a year ago.

Operating income rebounded to $2.79 billion, from a loss of $143 million in the second quarter, well above the $2.33 billion analysts expected. SpaceX’s buzzy AI segment—renamed “Super Intelligence”—which includes computing capacity leased to Claude-maker Anthropic, Google, Grok and X, clocked in with revenue of $7.56 billion, compared to $6.47 billion analysts had expected, and up from $2.56 billion in the second quarter. SI revenue nearly tripled this quarter.

Connectivity revenue, mostly from Starlink, rose 69% to $5.25 billion, against the $4.92 analyst expected and connectivity operating income nearly doubled to $2.37 billion. Starlink added 1.6 million consumer subscribers, falling short of the 2.29 million analysts were predicting. Space revenues rose 6% to $1.77 billion, above the $1.46 billion expected.

Capital spending came in at $19.6 billion in the quarter, although the release did not include a full-year forecast, which analysts are eagerly waiting on to make projections about the outlook. SpaceX’s capital investments should nearly triple from about $70 billion this year to $197.4 billion in the 2028 fiscal year, according to figures cited by Melissa Otto, global head of Visible Alpha research at S&P Global. In a note before third quarter numbers were released, Otto wrote that consensus estimate projections pegged connectivity capex surging from $4.2 billion in fiscal 2025 to $22.8 billion in fiscal 2028.

Alongside it, SpaceX’s debt should rise nearly sevenfold from $50.7 billion in 2025 to $350 billion in 2029, according to Otto. Earlier this month, SpaceX agreed to buy investment firm Grain Management’s 800 megahertz-band licenses to boost its Starlink Mobile phone service indoors.

The deal with the global investment firm that specializes in digital infrastructure, is subject to FCC approval. Financial terms were not disclosed but Wall Street Journal reporting put the amount SpaceX will pay at $8 billion.

The Q3 results also come a day after Musk posted on X that he planned to offer a share of SpaceX stock to “every kid in America” next year, calling the donation the first of many. Census figures show there are roughly 72 million children under 18 in the U.S., making the gift worth about $10.5 billion.

Currently, all of Musk’s shares in SpaceX are locked up until 2027, based on an extensive agreement he signed before SpaceX’s IPO in June. Daily breaks the traditional barrier between audience and newsroom.

The show transforms ’s trusted reporting into actionable, conversational, and entertaining insights for an emerging class of business leaders.