SpaceX earnings beat undercut by $18B AI capex, stock drops

SpaceX investors absorbed a sharp post-earnings stock decline even as the company posted its first results since going public in June. Revenue nearly doubled to $7.8 billion in the second quarter while the net loss narrowed from the prior year, yet capital spending reached roughly $18 billion, well above forecasts, with most directed at AI infrastructure.

The spending figure varied slightly across reports, from $16 billion to $18.4 billion, and could not be independently verified at a single precise total. Executives defended the outlay by citing a payback period under one year on AI compute deals with Anthropic and Google. Starlink generated $1.6 billion and remained the only clearly profitable segment.

Musk told analysts the company could reach $1 trillion in annual revenue by 2030, a year earlier than previously projected. He also described plans to expand Starlink Mobile into direct competition with U.S. carriers by building terrestrial base stations on existing Starlink hardware and using spectrum acquired from EchoStar.

Shares fell between 9 and 12 percent in after-hours trading, with some outlets citing 11 percent and others 12 percent; the precise drop could not be corroborated across sources. Analysts noted that the market is still sorting how to value a business shifting rapidly toward AI data centers while retaining its core rocket and satellite operations. The first lock-up expiration, releasing about $100 billion in shares, added further near-term pressure.

SpaceX also reported enterprise and government Starlink revenue growing more than 108 percent year over year. No major customer losses or regulatory setbacks were disclosed in the earnings materials.