SpaceX Revenue Surges 161% to a $4.4 Billion Profit as Musk Calls a Tesla Merger a 'Good Idea'
Elon Musk's aerospace company SpaceX has grown its revenue by 161 percent. The company released its financial results on Tuesday for the three months ending in September — only its second-ever quarterly earnings report.
According to the release, SpaceX earned an overall profit of $4.40 billion in its most recent quarter, turning around from a loss of $1.05 billion in the same three-month period a year earlier. The company had also recorded a loss in the previous quarter ending in June, so the latest report marks a return to profitability.
The surge was owed in large part to a significant expansion of the company's businesses centred on artificial intelligence and Starlink, its satellite internet service, the earnings showed.
Shares of SpaceX jumped nearly 4 percent in after-hours trading after the release, putting the price of a share at about $153.30. The company, which Musk helms as founder and CEO, boasts a valuation of nearly $1.95 trillion.
The report is SpaceX's second quarterly disclosure since it went public in June. In its first release, in August, the company said it generated $7.8 billion in revenue over the three months ending in June — up from $4 billion in the same period a year earlier, though that revenue failed to keep up with costs.
Starlink is the main driver of the company's profits. SpaceX announced $5.2 billion in revenue in the most recent quarter from its connectivity segment, which includes Starlink — a rise of 69 percent from the same quarter a year earlier.
Earlier this month, Starlink acquired nationwide low-band spectrum, suggesting the company will seek to compete with US mobile carriers. Paul Golding, a senior analyst at Macquarie, said investors would be listening for launch timing, terrestrial build plans and appetite for more spectrum.
The AI picture has also flipped. The company's AI unit recorded an operating loss of $1.26 billion last quarter, in part because AI spending more than doubled from the previous quarter on infrastructure such as data centres. Over the three months ending in September, however, the unit turned positive, registering $431 million in income from operations. SpaceX also oversees xAI, whose chatbot competes with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude.
The earnings arrived a day after Musk vowed to give every child in the United States a share of stock in SpaceX. "Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America. This will be the first of many," Musk said in a post on X.
The latest US Census data estimated about 73 million people in the US under age 18. Using that figure and a share price of about $150, the giveaway would total nearly $11 billion. Musk's net worth stands at $927.4 billion, according to the most recent Fortune data — meaning the donation would amount to about 1.1 percent of his wealth.
Musk also floated a far bigger idea. During a call with financial analysts over SpaceX's quarterly results on Tuesday, he said he likes the idea of a merger of Tesla and SpaceX, and that it is under active consideration. "Do I think it would be a good idea? Yes," he said.
He cautioned, however, that such a merger should not be assumed, and that it would need shareholders' support. Special committees within both companies have been formed to consider it. "The special committees have not reached agreement on terms of any transaction and there's no guarantee that they will," Musk added. "But I do think there is a lot of merit to merging and a lot to be gained."
A surge in AI spending has helped boost the US economy in recent quarters, but some economists have warned the industry may increase inflation and harm job prospects for some workers. Against that debate, SpaceX's record results — and Musk's merger musings — are set to stay at the centre of investor attention in the days ahead.
