SpaceX, in First Earnings After IPO, Reports Soaring AI Spending
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- SpaceX reported Q2 capital expenditures of $18.4 billion, nearly 7x the $2.8 billion spent a year earlier, with a narrower quarterly loss of $541 million against last year's $1 billion.
- Revenue climbed 92% year-over-year to $7.8 billion in the quarter, though executives signalled on the call that the spending spree is not slowing.
- Musk told investors SpaceX would begin launching space-based data centers as soon as next year and pulled the company's $1 trillion revenue target forward from 2031 to 2030.
- Shares fell more than 10% in after-hours trading following the results and Musk's forward-looking commitments.
- The June IPO was the largest-ever, briefly making Musk the world's first trillionaire; he has since reverted to billionaire status amid the rocky post-listing ride.
- SpaceX is simultaneously funding near-term operations and long-shot ambitions including orbital data centers, moon factories and crewed Mars missions.
Why it matters: SpaceX posted a $541 million loss alongside $18.4 billion in capital expenditures—nearly seven times last year's $2.8 billion—just one quarter removed from the largest IPO in history. The 10%+ after-hours selloff shows public market investors are recalibrating how long they'll underwrite Musk's lunar and orbital-data-center roadmap at the current burn rate.
