{"id":575775,"date":"2026-08-05T18:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T18:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/575775\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T18:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T18:18:11","slug":"spacexs-future-plans-hinge-heavily-on-starlink-and-grok","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/575775\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX\u2019s Future Plans Hinge Heavily on Starlink and Grok"},"content":{"rendered":"

SpaceX hosted its first-ever public earnings call since its record-breaking IPO<\/a> on Tuesday. And while billionaire CEO Elon Musk spun a web of lofty promises (as he is wont to do<\/a>) about a future moon catapult and a space-based economy, it seems the company\u2019s more practical businesses are the immediate focus now that it has a responsibility to shareholders.<\/p>\n

The future of SpaceX is directly tied to its satellites and large language models. SpaceX\u2019s Starlink connectivity business, AI data centers and future Grok models are the primary focus over the next year of business, as they generate the greatest amount of revenue for the company. The Starship and Falcon rockets<\/a> received far less time in the spotlight.<\/p>\n

Since its founding, SpaceX has never posted a profit. The company\u2019s massive valuation is based on ballooning revenue projections<\/a> for the next half-decade of operations. Now that public investors have entered the picture, it\u2019s becoming more important to actually deliver on some of these promises sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

\"ASpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rockets may be some of its flashiest assets, but the company\u2019s space unit isn\u2019t currently profitable.Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s big numbers and lofty promises<\/p>\n

During the earnings call on Tuesday, Musk threw out a whole bunch of big numbers and vague promises about how SpaceX plans to expand its Starship, Starlink and AI businesses over the next 10 years.<\/p>\n

By his own admission, many of the rapid-fire claims Musk listed during the earnings call sounded \u201csuper sci-fi\u201d and \u201ctotally nuts,\u201d especially when he started talking about building a hardware catapult on the moon. It\u2019s always good to take Musk\u2019s promises with a shaker\u2019s worth of salt<\/a>. But sifting through the billionaire\u2019s lofty promises still usually reveals a kernel of truth about the direction his companies are heading, even if the final product never comes to fruition.<\/p>\n

Musk reiterated that SpaceX\u2019s Starship and Falcon projects are important to the company. The CEO said he wants the company\u2019s rockets to deliver 10 million tons of hardware into orbit per year, though he didn\u2019t provide a timeline for that goal. SpaceX rockets currently deliver 2,500 tons of hardware into orbit<\/a> per year, according to Musk.<\/p>\n

But the lion\u2019s share of his prepared statement focused on Starlink V3 satellite technology and future Grok AI capabilities, echoing the more grounded financial realities espoused by SpaceX\u2019s other key executives during the call.<\/p>\n

Musk said the latest generation of Starlink satellites is 10 times more capable than the V2 satellites, but didn\u2019t provide any specific performance metrics. He said that SpaceX expects to launch 10 times as many V3 satellites, which \u201cwould mean a roughly two-order-of-magnitude increase in delivered bandwidth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within the next decade, Musk said, \u201cStarlink will deliver a majority of the world\u2019s internet, at least in countries where [SpaceX] is allowed to operate.\u201d It\u2019s a bold prediction without much backing, despite the fact that the service reached its 12 million subscriber milestone this quarter.<\/p>\n

Musk said SpaceX\u2019s physical computing power \u2014 its AI data centers and the supercomputers housed within them \u2014 is being built out and deployed faster than competitors and that the company is \u201cproviding compute to others,\u201d likely referring to the data center deal<\/a> inked between SpaceX and Anthropic.<\/p>\n

SpaceX expects to end the year with over two gigawatts of computing capacity, but Musk initially said during the call that the company will end 2027 with \u201ccloser to 10 gigawatts of compute than 5 gigawatts of compute.\u201d Later, during the investor Q&A, Musk said the company was aiming to have 15 gigawatts of AI computing capacity online by the end of next year.<\/p>\n

Grok AI is also an outsized focus for SpaceX, even amid litigation<\/a> surrounding the LLM\u2019s reported creation<\/a> of more than 4.4 million nonconsensual sexual images.<\/p>\n

Musk said that two more Grok models would launch within the next two months, after which he promised that the company would dramatically improve its AI development cadence. According to Musk, Grok 5 will come out sometime this year. <\/p>\n

Musk told one investor that the expected timeline for SpaceX to reach $1 trillion of yearly revenue has been moved up from 2031 \u2014 he now believes that figure could be achieved as early as 2029. That claim would require the company to achieve unseen exponential growth numbers<\/a> to come true.<\/p>\n

Though Musk\u2019s specific claims are dubious at best, SpaceX is definitely adding a lot of hardware to its balance sheet and creating avenues to earn additional money.<\/p>\n

\"TheIn a sense, SpaceX\u2019s only real moneymaker is Starlink.Matteo Della Torre\/NurPhoto\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The here and now: How is SpaceX making money?<\/p>\n

SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell and chief financial officer Bret Johnsen shared details about Starlink and Grok\u2019s revenue numbers and performance metrics. While the combined yearly revenue of all of SpaceX\u2019s business tallies up to roughly $7.8 billion, the aerospace and AI units are operating at a loss. SpaceX\u2019s connectivity business is the only part of the company to turn a profit \u2014 Starlink brought in $1.66 billion more than it cost to operate this year.<\/p>\n

Connectivity growth was due to record Starlink subscriber numbers as well as a \u201csharp increase in enterprise and government revenue,\u201d according to Johnsen. Starlink added more than 1.7 million new subscribers during this quarter, a figure representing over 10% of the service\u2019s total customers.<\/p>\n

SpaceX will likely try to ink more contracts with corporations and governments for internet service in the near future. \u201cWe believe revenue from these [enterprise] markets has the potential to reach a scale at least comparable, but likely to exceed our consumer business as we continue to gain market share,\u201d Shotwell said. She pointed to recent airline partnerships<\/a> as examples of the type of deals SpaceX will continue to pursue.<\/p>\n

Shotwell said the planned rollout of Starlink Mobile<\/a> next year will make the company\u2019s connectivity segment even more financially viable. \u201cThe big three [mobile providers] in the United States, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, make roughly $600 billion between them a year,\u201d said Shotwell. \u201cI anticipate us to be able to acquire quite a few of their customers because I think our service will be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the controversies surrounding xAI and the net losses incurred by SpaceX\u2019s AI unit, Grok is another of the primary driving forces behind SpaceX\u2019s revenue growth. Johnsen said X subscriptions have increased as more people adopt Grok into their daily activities.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still unclear how SpaceX plans to make its AI unit profitable, despite the fact that Musk told an investor that he thinks his models will be able to handle any digital job by the end of next year. If the company decides to pivot in the future, however, its physical computing capacity might be leveraged to create another stream of revenue in a deal not dissimilar to the one SpaceX struck with Anthropic.<\/p>\n

The future of SpaceX<\/p>\n

The first SpaceX earnings call provided a much clearer path forward for the company. While its IPO valuation largely hinged on Musk\u2019s cult of personality<\/a> and ambitious plans for a mission to Mars<\/a>, immediate investment in satellites and AI hardware put some grounded physical assets on the balance sheet.<\/p>\n

Despite bringing in $2.56 billion in revenue, SpaceX\u2019s AI unit has bled $1.26 billion so far this year. That loss alone accounts for more than 75% of Starlink\u2019s yearly profits.<\/p>\n

Now, SpaceX is becoming increasingly ingrained in the circular AI economy<\/a>. During the call, Musk announced that all of his company\u2019s future AI computing power will be derived from Nvidia hardware. A partnership with what is potentially the linchpin company for the AI industry<\/a> indicates that SpaceX\u2019s AI spending will only ramp up in the coming years.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Tyler\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTyler is a writer for CNET covering laptops and video games. He’s previously covered mobile devices, home energy products and broadband. He came to CNET straight out of college, where he graduated from Seton Hall with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. When Tyler’s not asking questions or doing research for his next assignment, you can find him in his home state of New Jersey, kicking back with a bagel and watching an action flick or playing a new video game.
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\nYou can reach him at tgraham@cnet.com.
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