SpaceX Q2 Revenue Surges 92% on Starlink and AI Compute Deals

Summary

SpaceX reported $7.8 billion in revenue for the second quarter of 2026, up 92% from $4 billion in the same period of 2025, according to its first quarterly earnings release as a public company. Nearly $2 billion of the increase came from its artificial intelligence division, while Starlink contributed another $1.7 billion in year-over-year growth. SpaceX remained unprofitable, recording a $541 million quarterly loss, although that was a substantial improvement from the $1 billion loss reported a year earlier.

The AI growth reflects a strategic change in how SpaceX uses computing infrastructure originally built for xAI, Elon Musk’s AI startup before it was absorbed into the rocket company. After xAI struggled to catch leading laboratories such as OpenAI and Anthropic and faced controversies involving its Grok chatbot, SpaceX redirected available capacity at two data centers in and near Memphis, Tennessee. Hosting agreements with Anthropic and Google allowed the company to monetize that computing power, with CFO Bret Johnsen saying the new business produced high incremental EBITDA margins.

Management said more cloud revenue is already contracted. Johnsen disclosed $6.7 billion in cloud-services revenue scheduled over a six-month period that will begin ramping in October 2026. He also projected that SpaceX could reach a $100 billion annualized revenue run rate by year-end after fully integrating AI startup Cursor. Musk presented that target even more confidently, saying the December run rate could exceed $100 billion. For context, SpaceX generated $18.67 billion of actual revenue during all of 2025. An annualized run rate is an extrapolation of revenue at a particular moment, however, rather than a guarantee that $100 billion will be recognized over the full year; the report also does not explain the terms or timing of the Cursor integration.

The growth is being accompanied by unusually heavy investment. SpaceX recorded more than $28 billion in capital expenditures during the first half of 2026, four times the $7 billion spent in the corresponding 2025 period. The company reportedly has a $100 billion financial reserve following a successful post-IPO bond sale. Its public debut, completed roughly two months before the earnings report, raised more than $85 billion at a $1.75 trillion valuation and was described by the source as the largest IPO ever.

Investor reaction nevertheless showed concern about profitability, spending and the credibility of management’s projections. SpaceX shares had already fallen below their $135 IPO price before the results, closing slightly above $125 on August 4. They then dropped as much as 8% in after-hours trading. That performance followed an initial post-listing surge in which SpaceX’s market capitalization briefly surpassed Amazon’s and approached Microsoft’s.

The verifiable results show that Starlink and third-party compute hosting have broadened SpaceX beyond launches and its own AI products. The interpretation is less settled: renting unused capacity may improve infrastructure economics, but the company still has to turn rapid sales growth into durable profits while funding enormous capital requirements. Investors will next watch the cloud-contract ramp beginning in October, Starlink’s continued expansion, progress toward management’s December run-rate target and whether quarterly losses keep narrowing. Uncertainties include the sustainability of hosting margins, execution of the Cursor integration and whether the $6.7 billion backlog translates into revenue on the stated schedule.