SpaceX reported its first quarterly profit since its June listing, posting net income of $4.4 billion for the three months ended September 30 versus a $1.1 billion loss a year earlier and analyst expectations of $1.57 billion. Revenue jumped 161% to $14.58 billion, driven by a near tenfold increase in the segment the company labels AI to $7.56 billion. That line is dominated by renting data centre capacity to developers including Anthropic, Google and Reflection AI rather than by proprietary model sales.
Capital intensity deepens
The profit came alongside a near tripling of capital expenditure to $19.6 billion, underscoring that the infrastructure bill is still running well ahead of the revenue it is meant to support. Musk told analysts the company is now targeting $1 trillion in annual recurring revenue by 2028, pulling forward a previous 2030 goal as demand for compute capacity accelerates.
Starlink tops subscriber estimates
The satellite broadband unit added users at a pace that exceeded consensus, reaching 13.6 million subscribers against expectations of 12.19 million. The beat provides a rare point of fundamental validation for a business that has historically been valued on launch cadence rather than recurring revenue metrics.
Merger talk resurfaces
On the earnings call Musk endorsed the idea of combining SpaceX with Tesla, saying a merger would yield “a lot to be gained.” Independent board committees have been formed at the request of shareholders to evaluate the proposal; Musk, who holds roughly 48% of SpaceX and nearly a fifth of Tesla, is recused from those discussions. Tesla shares rose 3% in premarket trading on the comment. Barclays last week speculated a deal could be announced before Tesla’s December annual meeting.
Voting control unchanged
Following the IPO Musk retains 82% of SpaceX voting power through a dual-class structure, while Alphabet holds a 6% stake valued at roughly $94 billion. The ownership architecture means any merger terms will ultimately be set by a single shareholder on the SpaceX side, a dynamic that has drawn scrutiny from governance advocates in previous Musk-led transactions.