SpaceX shares sink after first earnings report reveals huge AI spending plans
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- SpaceX shares dropped nearly 9% in after-hours trading after its first-ever earnings report revealed spending of $18.3bn — more than six times year-ago levels — with the bulk going to AI, against quarterly revenue of $7.8bn.
- SpaceX posted a $143m net loss for Q2 and $2bn for the first half of the year; its AI segment lost $1.2bn on $2.5bn of revenue while the space unit posted a $542m loss against $962m in revenue.
- Starlink remains SpaceX's only profitable business unit, generating $1.6bn in Q2, while Elon Musk said it could eventually "operate most of the world's internet."
- SpaceX currently has 1.4 gigawatts of AI compute capacity and plans to scale to at least 10 gigawatts next year through data center buildouts, with Google and Anthropic among current compute customers.
- Elon Musk said SpaceX could hit $1tn in annual revenue by 2030 — a year ahead of his forecast from six weeks earlier — despite analysts flagging that the AI business is still bleeding cash.
- SpaceX shares have drifted down from a June high of $176 and have traded below the original $135 debut price for several weeks, with analyst Matt Britzman warning it "could soon resemble an AI infrastructure company with an extraordinary space business attached."
Why it matters: With Starlink as the lone profit engine and the AI unit losing $1.2bn on $2.5bn revenue, SpaceX is asking investors to bankroll a compute scale-up from 1.4 to 10 gigawatts next year against Musk's revised $1tn-by-2030 target. Shares now sit below the $135 IPO price after touching $176 in June.
