SpaceX reported a 92 percent revenue jump in its first quarterly results as a public company, yet shares fell 7.5 percent in after-hours trading as investors digested an $18 billion capital expenditure bill that dwarfs anything in the company's history.
The capex shock
Capital spending ballooned to more than $18 billion from $2.83 billion a year earlier, with $15.83 billion of that directed to AI infrastructure in the second quarter alone, up from $749 million in the same period last year. CFO Bret Johnsen said spending would remain at similar levels for the next couple of quarters. The company also promised a less than one-year payback on new capital deployed for AI compute, a timeline that assumes revenue conversion at a pace no hyperscaler has yet demonstrated.
Starlink carries the top line
Starlink revenue rose 66 percent and accounted for over half of total revenue, while the AI business Musk has pitched as the future growth driver surged about 250 percent. Musk told analysts the company is building AI compute capacity at scale faster than anyone else and significantly improving its models. The company targets a $100 billion revenue run-rate by December and plans to launch at least 1,000 next-generation V3 Starlink satellites within a year.
The lockup overhang
The stock had rallied more than 9 percent earlier in the session before reversing. Since its June debut at $150, an 11 percent premium to the $135 IPO price, shares surged more than 50 percent in three sessions, then fell roughly 46 percent to a record low of $108.37. As many as 911.5 million shares become eligible for trade this month as lockup restrictions expire, according to Bloomberg, adding structural supply pressure to a name already re-rating on the capex trajectory.