SpaceX has significantly exceeded expectations with its first quarterly results as a publicly traded company. Revenue is growing, losses are shrinking and Starlink is gaining millions of customers. Nevertheless, the stock fell sharply in after-hours trading. The reason lies in a familiar founder dilemma: SpaceX is generating more and more revenue — but investing even faster.
SpaceX generated approximately $7.81 billion in revenue in the second quarter of 2026. That was 92 percent more than in the same period of the previous year and significantly above analysts’ expectations of around $6.9 billion.
At the same time, the net loss fell from approximately $1 billion to $541 million. Nevertheless, the stock initially lost more than eight percent following the publication of the results. In premarket trading on Wednesday, the decline temporarily reached nine percent. SpaceX has been listed on Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX since June 12.
Starlink Supports the Company
The Connectivity division, which primarily includes the Starlink satellite internet service, remains by far the largest source of revenue. It generated $4.29 billion during the quarter.
The AI business surrounding xAI, Grok and X contributed $2.56 billion. SpaceX generated $962 million from rocket launches and other space services. All three divisions exceeded analysts’ expectations.
Starlink, however, is currently the only consistently profitable part of the group. Its revenue finances not only the development of the Starship heavy-lift rocket but, since the merger with xAI, also the construction of enormous AI infrastructure.
This structure is precisely what makes investors nervous: One functioning business has to support several extremely capital-intensive future projects at the same time.
$15.8 Billion for AI in Three Months
SpaceX invested a total of approximately $18.4 billion during the quarter. Of that amount, $15.8 billion went into data centers, Nvidia chips and other AI infrastructure.
Investment was therefore more than twice as high as total quarterly revenue. According to management, spending is expected to remain at a similar level during the next two quarters. Free cash flow consequently remained deeply negative.
Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen defended the strategy. New computing capacity currently had a payback period of less than one year, he said. Since the end of the quarter, additional cloud contracts worth $6.7 billion had been signed.
That would suggest that the AI infrastructure could increasingly finance its own expansion. However, this promise has not yet been supported by a longer record of business results. The AI division continues to report operating losses.
Musk Promises the Next Order of Magnitude
Elon Musk expects annualized revenue to reach $100 billion by the end of the year. Over the longer term, he has even suggested revenue of $1 trillion.
The foundation is expected to consist of Starlink, cloud and AI services, reusable Starship rockets and additional government and commercial space contracts. Demand is present: SpaceX reports an order backlog of approximately $47.5 billion and held around $100 billion in cash and securities at the end of the quarter.
The company therefore has substantial reserves. But even $100 billion can shrink quickly when quarterly investment exceeds $18 billion and the anticipated returns arrive later than planned.
Good Results Are Not Enough at an Extreme Valuation
The June IPO valued SpaceX at approximately $2 trillion. Since then, the stock has at times lost around half of its peak value and fallen below its issue price of $135.
At such a valuation, investors do not merely expect growth. They expect SpaceX to dominate several enormous markets at the same time: satellite internet, space transportation, artificial intelligence and possibly the commercial use of the Moon and Mars in the future.
The quarterly results show that the operational core is working. They do not yet show that every new major project will develop the same economic strength.
