![\"SpaceX](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/b6b526d269e979353e558b1cd6519481.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nSpaceX shares climbed in after-hours trade after the company reported that its third-quarter revenue more than doubled with growth.<\/p>\n
Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Tuesday said its third-quarter revenue more than doubled, beating estimates as AI and Starlink grew.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, capital spending nearly tripled as it invested in compute infrastructure, sending its shares up about 3 per cent in extended trading.<\/p>\n
Starlink and SpaceX’s broader connectivity operations have been the company’s main financial engine, underpinning Musk’s \u200cAI ambitions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But SpaceX’s own AI software, including xAI’s Grok, has so far been overshadowed by rivals OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.<\/p>\n
Revenue in the third quarter stood at US$14.58 billion, compared with analysts’ estimate of US$12.72 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.<\/p>\n
It reported a net profit of US$4.4 billion for the three months ended September 30, compared with analysts’ expectation for a profit of US$1.57 billion.<\/p>\n
AI revenue rose more than ninefold to US$7.6 billion, mostly from renting out computing capacity.<\/p>\n
But AI took up US$16.4 billion of the company’s US$19.6 billion in capital spending.<\/p>\n
SpaceX expects fourth quarter capital expenditure to reach US$35 billion to US$40 billion.<\/p>\n
SpaceX is making its AI money mainly by renting out data-centre capacity to developers such as Anthropic, Google and Reflection AI rather than from its own models, a business closer to a cloud provider’s than an AI lab’s.<\/p>\n
The company’s AI business spans Grok, social-media platform X and a fast-growing data-centre operation.<\/p>\n
It is also the company’s biggest area of investment.<\/p>\n
The business earns revenue from compute contracts with Anthropic, Alphabet’s Google and Reflection AI rather than from its own models.<\/p>\n
Operating losses at the AI unit have been large and SpaceX has cautioned it will need sustained investment before it can consistently generate profits.<\/p>\n
The satellite-internet unit has continued to expand its subscriber base, aided by additional satellite launches and a growing range of consumer, enterprise, aviation, maritime and government services.<\/p>\n
Starlink reached 13.6 million subscribers in the third quarter, above the 12.19 million analysts expected, but growth is coming at \u200ca price: average monthly revenue per subscriber has fallen from US$99 in 2023 to US$69 in the third quarter as it expands abroad with cheaper plans.<\/p>\n
The company has said geographic expansion beyond the wealthiest countries could push average revenue per user lower over time.<\/p>\n
Investors have been keen to know whether that pricing pressure has started to show up as SpaceX enters more international markets and rolls out lower-priced plans.<\/p>\n
Investors are also watching whether SpaceX can keep growing while improving the economics of its network.<\/p>\n
It is spending heavily on coverage, capacity and direct-to-device mobile services.<\/p>\n
SpaceX’s next-generation reusable rocket system has yet to enter commercial service.<\/p>\n
It is expected to enable deployment of higher-bandwidth Starlink satellites and orbital AI-computing infrastructure.<\/p>\n
The company’s ability to turn Starship into a reliably reusable vehicle is central to its longer-term strategy.<\/p>\n
SpaceX successfully deployed 26 Starlink satellites last month, in Starship’s first orbital test flight that ended hours earlier than expected after an engine issue.<\/p>\n
The space segment includes commercial launches, government missions and Starship development and remains a significant source of costs and uncertainty.<\/p>\n
Falcon launch activity has stayed robust, but revenue can vary with the mix of internal Starlink deployments, commercial customer missions and government contracts.<\/p>\n
SpaceX has increasingly prioritised launches for its own satellite network over third-party payloads, while absorbing significant costs tied to Starship’s development.<\/p>\n
Investors will also be keen to hear Musk’s comments on a much-talked-about potential merger between SpaceX and Tesla, which reports results on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
– with Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SpaceX shares climbed in after-hours trade after the company reported that its third-quarter revenue more than doubled 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