SpaceX shares sink after first earnings report reveals huge AI spending plans

SpaceX Reports Quarterly Results Following Public Listing, Shares Decline

Shares in SpaceX declined after the company released its first earnings report as a public company. Revenue for the three months to June reached $7.8 billion, nearly double the level recorded a year earlier. Capital expenditures rose to $18.3 billion, compared with approximately $3 billion in the same period last year, with the increase directed primarily toward data-centre construction for artificial-intelligence workloads.

The company, which operates launch vehicles, the Starlink satellite network and the social-media platform X, began trading on U.S. exchanges in June. Its shares fell approximately 7 percent in after-hours trading following the release.

Chief executive Elon Musk stated during the subsequent investor call that investors appeared to be underestimating the firm’s prospects. SpaceX recorded a net loss of $541 million for the quarter and a loss of $2 billion for the first half of the year. Musk highlighted Starlink as the segment currently generating positive operating results, with revenue of $1.6 billion in the second quarter. He said subscription growth supports an expectation of continued expansion and that Starlink could eventually carry a substantial share of global internet traffic.

Musk also described plans to increase capacity in the company’s emerging business of supplying computing power for AI training and inference. Current installed capacity stands at 1.4 gigawatts, with a target of at least 10 gigawatts by the end of next year through additional data-centre construction. He characterised data-centre development as less technically complex than reusable launch-vehicle programmes, which remain the firm’s primary focus.

Revenue from the space segment totalled $962 million in the quarter. The company stated that capital spending is expected to remain at a comparable level through the remainder of the year. Musk projected that total revenue could reach $1 trillion by 2030, an earlier timeline than he had indicated six weeks previously.

Analyst commentary following the release noted that the scale of data-centre investment is shifting the near-term revenue mix. Matt Britzman of Hargreaves Lansdown observed that SpaceX may increasingly be viewed as an AI-infrastructure provider with an attached space business. He added that Starship development and future Starlink generations are viewed as central to longer-term strategy, while AI-related activities are expected to drive financial performance over the next several years.

Brady Wang of Counterpoint Research stated that Starlink subscriber growth remains solid and that the unit is the only segment currently operating at a profit. Fabien Yip of IG noted that continued losses in newer business lines make it difficult to conclude that the entire company is being undervalued by investors. Wendy Souvannarath, chief executive of Carré Partners, an investor in SpaceX, told the BBC that comparable levels of AI-related expenditure are occurring across the technology sector. She said the company treats such spending as an operating cost expected to generate returns within roughly one year and that Starlink addresses connectivity gaps in regions without terrestrial infrastructure.

Yip also observed that political controversies associated with Musk have previously affected investor sentiment and continue to represent a risk factor. SpaceX shares reached an intraday peak of $176 shortly after listing but have since traded below the $135 debut price for several weeks.

The earnings release provided the first detailed public breakdown of segment performance following the June listing. Starlink remains the sole profitable business unit at present, while spending on data-centre capacity continues at elevated levels. Company guidance continues to emphasise both launch-vehicle cadence and expansion of compute infrastructure as parallel priorities through 2030.