SpaceX reported results for the July–September quarter of 2026 on October 20 (U.S. time). Revenue from its AI business surpassed that of its Starlink-centered connectivity business, and the company posted its first quarterly profit since going public.
Revenue rose 161% year over year to about $14.58 billion, beating the $12.72 billion consensus estimate compiled by LSEG. Operating income was $2.791 billion, and net income came to $4.404 billion, compared with a net loss of $1.054 billion a year earlier. Diluted earnings per share were $0.35.
Net income exceeded operating income because the company booked $873 million in interest income and $1.025 billion in other income, along with a $390 million income tax refund. SpaceX’s digital assets stood at $1.573 billion at the end of September, up about $475 million from $1.098 billion at the end of June. The earnings release did not say which cryptocurrencies the company holds, how much of each, or whether changes in their value are included in other income.
Starting this quarter, the company renamed its AI segment from “Artificial Intelligence (AI)” to “Super Intelligence (SI).” SI revenue jumped 830% year over year and 195% from the previous quarter to $7.56 billion. The segment swung to an operating profit of $431 million, or $1.648 billion excluding $1.217 billion in stock-based compensation tied to the Cursor acquisition.
The SI segment includes compute services, the Grok AI model, advertising revenue, and Cursor, the AI coding tool whose acquisition closed on August 14. SpaceX acquired xAI in February 2026 and has signed compute agreements with Anthropic and Google. Cursor contributed $608 million in revenue from the close of the deal through September 30.
“Revenue grew a robust 161% year over year, driven by continued momentum in our connectivity business and a clear inflection point in our Super Intelligence business,” SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen said in the release. On the earnings call, CEO Elon Musk said, “Frankly, every hyperscaler and dozens of smaller companies are constantly asking us to rent them more compute.”
SI now accounts for more than half of total revenue, up sharply from about one-seventh a year earlier. The growth is being driven by compute services sold to outside companies. According to SEC filings, Google will pay $920 million a month under its contract from October 2026 through June 2029, with payments starting after the quarter covered by these results.
Starlink, however, still generates most of the profit. The connectivity business accounted for about 85% of total operating income, while SI’s operating margin was just 5.7%. SI’s profitability is being weighed down by stock-based compensation tied to the Cursor acquisition, which SpaceX puts at $23.4 billion in total.
Starlink’s consumer subscribers reached 13.6 million. On the earnings call, SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said monthly users of its Starlink Mobile cellular service rose 37% from the previous quarter to more than 22 million. On October 8, SpaceX also agreed to acquire 800 MHz spectrum licenses from Grain Management, a deal it expects to close in the first half of 2027.
SI capital expenditures came to $16.444 billion, about 84% of the company’s total capex of $19.593 billion. “At current pricing levels, newly deployed compute is paying back in less than a year,” Johnsen said on the earnings call. He expects capex of $35 billion to $40 billion for the October–December 2026 quarter.
Operating cash flow for January through September was $13.097 billion, while capex over the same period totaled $48.069 billion, meaning spending outpaced operating cash flow by about $35 billion. As of the end of September, cash and cash equivalents stood at $51.294 billion, or about $89.86 billion including marketable securities.
SpaceX shares closed regular trading on the 20th at $147.79 and briefly rose more than 6% in after-hours trading following the results. The closing price was about 9.5% above the $135 IPO price. According to reports, part of the IPO lockup will expire on Thursday, October 22, 2026, making up to 1.3 billion shares eligible for sale.
Separately, Musk announced on X on October 19 that in 2027 he would give one SpaceX share from his own holdings to every child in the United States. The plan was not mentioned in the earnings release or on the earnings call.
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