Main takeaways from SpaceX’s earnings call today
AI is now SpaceX’s biggest business: The Super Intelligence segment, which rents computing capacity to customers including Anthropic and Google, brought in $7.6B, nearly triple its $2.56B in the second quarter.
That made it SpaceX’s largest revenue source, ahead of the $5.2B Starlink connectivity business, with $608M coming from the newly acquired Cursor.
SpaceX swung to a profit: Net income reached $4.4B on $14.6B of revenue, up 161%, against a $1.1B loss a year earlier and a $541M loss in the second quarter. Even so, SpaceX still showed a $413M net loss for the first 9 months of 2026.
A SpaceX-Tesla merger is under study: Committees of independent directors at both companies are discussing a combination at shareholders’ request, and Musk said he is excluded from those talks as a conflicted party. He called a merger a good idea but said it isn’t certain, and any deal would need support from a majority of all outstanding Tesla shares.
Musk sees revenue multiplying: Musk projected annual recurring revenue of $500B to $1T by the end of 2027. SpaceX’s own guidance is far lower in the near term, with $100B in annualized revenue by the end of 2026, based on December sales, and $33B to $37B of revenue in the first quarter of 2027.
Spending is outrunning revenue: Capital spending hit $19.6B in the third quarter, $16.4B of it in the AI segment, and SpaceX expects $35B to $40B in the fourth quarter. Musk said SpaceX prefers short-term compute contracts because he expects each watt of computing to earn more as AI models improve.
Musk is working from Memphis: Musk said he often spends 4 days a week in Memphis bringing the Colossus II supercomputer online, as SpaceX adds roughly 200K Nvidia GB300 chips a month. Compute capacity stood at 1.7GW at the end of September, SpaceX expects 2.5GW to 3GW by year-end, and Musk said he is confident of adding 10GW during 2027.
Louisiana launches are expected by 2029: SpaceX recently announced plans for a $100B spaceport in Louisiana, and Musk said the internal goal is a first launch there within 2 years, while 2029 is highly likely, with launches at scale that year.