SpaceX made more money from AI than from rockets last quarter
SpaceX's latest quarterly earnings show the company now makes more money from AI than from launching rockets. The AI division brought in $2.6 billion in revenue, more than three times what it made in the same quarter a year earlier, according to the filings. Most of that growth came from deals to sell compute capacity to other AI companies: SpaceX signed agreements with Anthropic in May and with Google in June, putting it in direct competition with dedicated neocloud providers such as CoreWeave. The AI unit is still unprofitable, though: it lost $1.5 billion this quarter, a bit less than the loss in the same period last year.
By comparison, SpaceX's space segment, the rockets business the company is named for, brought in $962 million this quarter, less than half the AI division's revenue. The Starlink connectivity business remained the largest and, per the earnings documents, the only profitable part of the company, with $4.2 billion in revenue. SpaceX's own IPO paperwork had flagged this shift in advance: the company told prospective investors it expected most of its value to come from AI rather than spaceflight, and said building data centers in space was something it could do better than anyone else. SpaceX went public in June in what was the biggest IPO ever.
The pivot has roots in Grok, SpaceX's AI model, which had fallen far behind rival AI systems and drew criticism for producing nonconsensual explicit images, including of children. Before the IPO, SpaceX began renting out data center capacity it had originally built to run its own AI models. The company has also agreed to acquire Cursor to get an enterprise AI product, though that deal has not closed; on the investor call, Elon Musk said SpaceX is 'close to that' but did not want to 'jump the gun' on regulatory approval.
The AI buildout is expensive. Capital expenditures reached $18.37 billion this quarter. SpaceX's overall net loss narrowed to $143 million, but the cost of developing technology in the space division alone rose by $389 million from a year earlier, driven mainly by Starship. Starship matters because it needs to launch heavier versions of the Starlink satellites that make the connectivity business profitable; SpaceX said it had launched 20 of these heavier satellites so far, though it did not say how far off a full deployment batch of 60 satellites at once is.
According to Bloomberg, SpaceX beat analyst estimates this quarter, but its shares fell after hours following an initial jump, once the market had time to digest the results.
Key facts
- SpaceX's AI division earned $2.6 billion this quarter, more than tripling year over year and outpacing the $962 million the space segment brought in.
- The growth came mainly from compute deals signed with Anthropic in May and Google in June, putting SpaceX in competition with neoclouds like CoreWeave.
- The AI division still lost $1.5 billion this quarter, though that loss was slightly smaller than a year earlier; SpaceX's overall net loss narrowed to $143 million.
- Starlink connectivity remains the company's only profitable segment, with $4.2 billion in revenue, while capital expenditures reached $18.37 billion.
- SpaceX's pending acquisition of Cursor has not closed; Musk said the deal is 'close' but declined to 'jump the gun' on regulatory approval.
Why it matters
The numbers confirm what SpaceX itself told investors before its June IPO: despite the name, the company now expects most of its value to come from AI, not rockets. This quarter is the first clear evidence of that in the earnings, with AI revenue more than doubling the space segment's.
Who it affects
AI companies buying compute from SpaceX, starting with Anthropic and Google, gain another large supplier alongside dedicated neoclouds like CoreWeave. SpaceX shareholders are exposed to a business now split across a still-lossmaking AI unit, an underperforming rocket segment, and a profitable Starlink arm carrying the rest.
How to use it
There is no product here for consumers. The relevant detail for anyone tracking AI infrastructure supply is that SpaceX has effectively become a compute vendor, renting out capacity originally built for its own Grok model, and is separately trying to acquire Cursor to add an enterprise AI product once regulatory approval clears.
How solid is it
The figures come directly from SpaceX's quarterly earnings filings and an investor call where Musk spoke on the record; the comparison to analyst expectations is attributed to Bloomberg. The article does not give the prior-year AI revenue figure in dollars, only the multiple of growth.
Risks and caveats
The AI division remains unprofitable at a $1.5 billion quarterly loss, and capital spending is heavy at $18.37 billion. The Cursor acquisition has not closed and still needs regulatory approval. Grok, the model underpinning SpaceX's AI ambitions, has faced backlash for generating nonconsensual explicit images, including of children, and lags behind rival AI systems. Shares fell after hours despite the earnings beat.
“We're building AI compute capacity at scale faster than anyone else, we believe, and we're significantly improving our AI models”
— Elon Musk, on SpaceX's investor call