Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX -8.64%), more popularly known as "SpaceX," rocketed 9% higher through 10:55 a.m. ET Wednesday after crushing its Q3 earnings report last night.
Heading into the report, analysts had forecast that Elon Musk's recently IPO'd space-'n'-AI company would earn just $0.16 per share for the quarter.
SpaceX actually earned $0.35 per share -- more than double what Wall Street expected.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
SpaceX Q3 earnings
Revenue at the company's renamed "Super Intelligence" (nee "Artificial Intelligence" or "AI" -- so now, "SI") division exploded 830% higher, soaring to $7.6 billion. Connectivity -- once SpaceX's biggest business -- grew 69% to $5.2 billion. Space -- the division that gave SpaceX its name -- inched just 6% higher to $1.8 billion.
Total revenue at SpaceX increased 161% to $14.6 billion.
SpaceX's earnings news was arguably even better. The company's Connectivity division, until now SpaceX's only profitable division, increased its profit 99% year over year to $2.4 billion. SI flipped from unprofitable to profitable, earning $431 million for the quarter. Curiously, the Space division flipped the other way; it earned $259 million in last year's Q3, but lost $7 million this time around.
(This may be because of an accounting quirk at SpaceX, which "does not recognize any inter-segment revenue" in the Space division for launches of Starlink satellites for the Connectivity division.)
SPCX Space Exploration Technologies
NASDAQ · As of 3:55 PM ET 10/22/26
What's next for SpaceX stock
Not all of SpaceX's news was good, of course. While SpaceX's instinct will certainly be to emphasize the surprising profitability of its AI (sorry -- its "SI") business, capital investment in SI remains a drain on cash. SI capex more than tripled year over year to $16.4 billion in Q3. So far this year, SpaceX's total capex is $48.1 billion, and its total cash burn is $35 billion -- on course for $47 billion.
