SpaceX Q3 2026 Results: Where Its Money Comes From and What It Spends on AI
SpaceX now takes in more money from artificial intelligence than from Starlink, with its AI business bringing in $7.6 billion in the third quarter of 2026. Starlink brought in $5.2 billion, and in our count $84 of every $100 SpaceX spent on new equipment and buildings that quarter went into AI.
The short answer. SpaceX’s AI business, which rents computing power to other companies and sells Grok and Cursor software, grew more than ninefold in a year to about half of its revenue. In the quarter the AI side spent $16.4 billion on building and made $431 million from operations, while Starlink made most of the company’s operating profit. Cash from the business covered a little more than a quarter of SpaceX’s building spending this year, and its June share sale and new borrowing covered the rest.
SpaceX in the third quarter of 2026
On this page
- Where does SpaceX’s money come from now?
- What is in SpaceX’s AI business?
- How fast is Starlink revenue still growing?
- How much is SpaceX spending to build its AI business?
- How is SpaceX paying for its building spending?
- Is SpaceX profitable now?
- How much money do SpaceX rockets bring in?
- How we counted
- Frequently asked questions
Where does SpaceX’s money come from now?
More than half of what SpaceX took in from July to September came from its AI business. A year earlier AI brought in about 1 in every 7 dollars, and Starlink more than half.
SpaceX reports three businesses. Space is the rocket and launch business, and Connectivity is mostly Starlink, its satellite internet service. Super Intelligence is the name SpaceX gave this quarter to what it used to call its AI business. That last one covers its AI models and apps, the computing capacity it rents out and an advertising business.
In the third quarter of 2026 the AI business brought in $7.6 billion, up from $813 million a year earlier. Starlink brought in $5.2 billion, according to the results release SpaceX filed with the SEC on October 20.
Rockets added $1.8 billion. Total revenue was $14.6 billion, up 161% from the same quarter of 2025, and you can read the full filing on StockTitan’s page for the SpaceX 8-K.
Show the data
| Part | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|
| AI (Super Intelligence) | $7.6B | 51.9% |
| Starlink (Connectivity) | $5.2B | 36.0% |
| Rockets (Space) | $1.8B | 12.1% |
The switch happened inside this one quarter. In the three months to June, Starlink still brought in $4.3 billion against $2.6 billion for AI. Over the first nine months of 2026 taken together, Starlink is still the larger of the two.
Show the data
| Category | AI (Super Intelligence) | Starlink (Connectivity) | Rockets (Space) | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q3 2025 | $0.8B | $3.1B | $1.7B | |
| Q4 2025 (derived) | $0.9B | $3.2B | $0.8B | Derived as full year 2025 revenue minus the first nine months of 2025. |
| Q1 2026 (derived) | $0.8B | $3.3B | $0.6B | |
| Q2 2026 | $2.6B | $4.3B | $1.0B | |
| Q3 2026 | $7.6B | $5.2B | $1.8B | Cursor acquired on August 14, 2026. |
| Revenue, $ millions | Q3 2025 | Q4 2025 | Q1 2026 | Q2 2026 | Q3 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI (Super Intelligence) | 813 | 923 | 818 | 2,561 | 7,560 |
| Starlink (Connectivity) | 3,097 | 3,228 | 3,257 | 4,291 | 5,248 |
| Rockets (Space) | 1,666 | 809 | 619 | 962 | 1,767 |
| Total | 5,576 | 4,960 | 4,694 | 7,814 | 14,575 |
Source: SpaceX results release of October 20, 2026 for Q3 2025, Q2 2026 and Q3 2026; Q1 2026 is the nine months minus the second and third quarters; Q4 2025 is the full year 2025 in the June 2026 prospectus minus the first nine months of 2025. Nine months of 2026: AI 10,939, Starlink 12,796, rockets 3,348, total 27,083.
What is in SpaceX’s AI business?
Most of it is computing power and AI software sold to businesses and people. Advertising and Cursor, the software company SpaceX bought in August, each bring in less than 1 in 10 of its dollars.
The filing splits the AI business into two lines. Advertising brought in $538 million, up from $454 million a year earlier. The other line, which SpaceX calls SI solutions and infrastructure, brought in $7.0 billion against $359 million. The release does not say how much of it is computing rented to others and how much is Grok.
SpaceX credits the jump to the start of new cloud services agreements, the purchase of Cursor and wider use of its Grok AI models by businesses and consumers. The release describes them as computing capacity for “third-party customers”, meaning other companies, and says SpaceX signed more of them during the quarter.
SpaceX completed the Cursor purchase on August 14, 2026, at what it called an implied value of $60 billion, and Cursor added $608 million of revenue by September 30. Take that out and the AI business still brought in about $7.0 billion, more than Starlink’s $5.2 billion.
| AI business, $ millions | Q3 2025 | Q2 2026 | Q3 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advertising | 454 | 367 | 538 |
| SI solutions and infrastructure | 359 | 2,194 | 7,022 |
| Total AI revenue | 813 | 2,561 | 7,560 |
| Of which Cursor, August 14 to September 30 | none | none | 608 |
| AI revenue without Cursor | 813 | 2,561 | 6,952 |
Source: SpaceX results release of October 20, 2026. The release does not say which of the two lines holds Cursor’s revenue, so it is subtracted from the total only. For Cursor the purchase price under accounting rules was $42.5 billion, and stock awards for staff who stay on are valued at $23.4 billion.
How fast is Starlink revenue still growing?
Starlink revenue grew by more than two thirds in a year, and the number of homes and small businesses paying for it nearly doubled. SpaceX describes that growth as speeding up.
Starlink brought in $5.2 billion in the third quarter, up 69% from $3.1 billion a year earlier. Its operating profit nearly doubled too, to $2.4 billion.
About $3.1 billion of that revenue came from people and small businesses on a monthly plan. Companies and governments, such as airlines, shipping lines and public agencies, paid $2.1 billion, a part of the business that grew 91% in a year.
Consumer subscribers, the homes, roaming users and small businesses on monthly plans, reached 13.6 million at the end of September, up from 7.2 million a year earlier. More than 3,800 aircraft had Starlink on board.
Revenue per consumer subscriber was $69 a month, up from $66 in the second quarter and below $83 a year earlier.
On October 8, after the quarter ended, SpaceX agreed to acquire airwave licenses for its planned Starlink Mobile service. It expects the deal to close in the first half of 2027.
| Starlink (Connectivity) | Q3 2025 | Q2 2026 | Q3 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consumer subscribers, millions | 7.2 | 12.0 | 13.6 |
| Average monthly revenue per consumer subscriber (ARPU) | $83 | $66 | $69 |
| Consumer revenue, $ millions | 1,986 | 2,485 | 3,121 |
| Enterprise and government revenue, $ millions | 1,111 | 1,806 | 2,127 |
| Operating profit, $ millions | 1,190 | 1,656 | 2,367 |
| Spending on equipment and buildings, $ millions | 1,007 | 1,367 | 1,543 |
Source: SpaceX results release of October 20, 2026. Consumer subscribers include home, roaming and small business plans and leave out companies and governments on contracts, which the release counts in the hundreds of thousands.
How much is SpaceX spending to build its AI business?
Most of SpaceX’s building money now goes to AI, about $84 of every $100 in the third quarter. The AI business spent a little over twice what it brought in.
Spending on equipment and buildings, which accountants call capital expenditure, reached $19.6 billion across SpaceX in the quarter. The AI business took $16.4 billion of it, against $4.8 billion a year earlier. StockTitan’s guide to capital spending and day to day costs explains why this money does not show up all at once as a cost.
Show the data
| Item | Value | Times the smallest |
|---|---|---|
| AI (Super Intelligence) | $16.4B | 11x |
| Rockets (Space) | $1.6B | 1.0x |
| Starlink (Connectivity) | $1.5B | 1.0x |
The release ties the AI business to its computing build. It says the AI side’s total costs rose mainly because of “the continued buildout of our compute infrastructure”, and that its computing capacity grew “as we continued the buildout of COLOSSUS II”.
SpaceX reports that capacity as “nameplate compute” in gigawatts, a measure of electric power. It reached 1.7 gigawatts on September 30, against 1.4 gigawatts in June and 0.6 a year earlier.
Set against what the AI business brought in, the spending is large. In the third quarter it spent $2.18 on building for every $1 of AI revenue. Over the first nine months of 2026 the figure was $3.66, since the revenue only took off in the summer.
Show the data
| Category | AI revenue | AI building spending |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 2025 | $0.8B | $4.8B |
| Q4 2025 (derived) | $0.9B | $4.7B |
| Q1 2026 (derived) | $0.8B | $7.7B |
| Q2 2026 | $2.6B | $15.8B |
| Q3 2026 | $7.6B | $16.4B |
In our reading the gap is narrowing from the revenue side. AI spending stayed close to $16 billion in each of the last two quarters, while AI revenue nearly tripled between them. That compares the size of the two amounts only, since revenue also has to pay running costs and the machines serve for years. Demand for AI capacity also shows up further back in the supply chain, as StockTitan found in ASML’s third quarter numbers.
| Spending on equipment and buildings, $ millions | Q3 2025 | Q2 2026 | Q3 2026 | Nine months 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI (Super Intelligence) | 4,760 | 15,828 | 16,444 | 39,995 |
| Starlink (Connectivity) | 1,007 | 1,367 | 1,543 | 4,242 |
| Rockets (Space) | 1,113 | 1,174 | 1,606 | 3,832 |
| Total | 6,880 | 18,369 | 19,593 | 48,069 |
Source: SpaceX results release of October 20, 2026, capex by segment. Derived AI spending: Q1 2026 7,723 (nine months minus the second and third quarters); Q4 2025 4,650 (full year 2025 AI capex of 12,727 in the June 2026 prospectus minus 8,077 for the first nine months of 2025).
How is SpaceX paying for its building spending?
Cash made by the business covered a little more than a quarter of what SpaceX spent on building in the first nine months of 2026. The money it raised in its June share sale, together with new borrowing, more than covered the rest.
From January to September, SpaceX’s operations brought in $13.1 billion of cash, up from $4.1 billion a year earlier. It spent $48.1 billion on equipment and buildings, a gap of about $35.0 billion.
That spending covers all three businesses, and $40.0 billion of it went to AI.
The share sale that took SpaceX public in June raised $85.7 billion after fees. New borrowing minus repayments added another $12.0 billion over the nine months, according to the cash flow statement in the release.
Show the data
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Cash from the business | $13.1B |
| IPO cash after costs | $85.7B |
| Borrowing after repayments | $12.0B |
| Building spending | $48.1B |
On September 30, SpaceX held $89.9 billion in cash and short-term investments, against $38.8 billion of debt and leases.
Much of the money raised is still unspent, and SpaceX put a net $37.6 billion of it into short-term investments over the nine months.
Customers paying ahead also helped the cash from the business. Payments received before the service is delivered, which the filing calls deferred revenue, added $4.9 billion to that cash over the nine months, more than a third of it.
| Nine months to September 30, $ millions | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Cash from operations | 4,120 | 13,097 |
| Spending on equipment and buildings | 13,846 | 48,069 |
| Share sale (IPO) proceeds, net | none | 85,675 |
| New debt and other financing | 10,947 | 51,834 |
| Debt repaid | 6,014 | 39,845 |
| Purchases of investments, net of maturities and sales | Sold 1,120 more than bought | 37,599 |
Source: SpaceX consolidated statement of cash flows, nine months ended September 30, 2026, in the results release of October 20, 2026. Balance sheet on September 30, 2026: cash 51,294, marketable securities 38,561, debt and finance leases 38,844, deferred revenue 17,520 (12,116 on December 31, 2025). The 4,922 is the change in deferred revenue in the cash flow statement.
Is SpaceX profitable now?
Yes, in the third quarter. SpaceX reported a $4.4 billion profit after a $1.1 billion loss a year earlier, and its operations made money as a whole.
Over the first nine months of 2026 taken together, SpaceX still shows a net loss of $413 million, because of losses earlier in the year.
Profit from operations, before interest and taxes, was $2.8 billion in the third quarter, and Starlink made $2.4 billion of it.
The AI business made $431 million after losing $1.7 billion a year earlier. Rockets were close to even, with a $7 million loss.
The AI figure already counts $1.2 billion of stock pay tied to the Cursor purchase. Those are SpaceX stock awards that vest over time, given to keep key Cursor staff.
Net income was higher than operating profit because of items below that line. SpaceX earned $873 million of interest and had $675 million of interest costs. It also booked $1.0 billion of other income and a $390 million tax benefit.
SpaceX also reports adjusted EBITDA, a profit measure of its own that leaves out depreciation (wear on machines spread over their life), stock pay, interest and taxes. On that basis the AI business made $5.0 billion and Starlink $3.5 billion.
| Q3 2026, $ millions | Operating profit | Adjusted EBITDA | Depreciation and amortization |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI (Super Intelligence) | 431 | 4,953 | 2,473 |
| Starlink (Connectivity) | 2,367 | 3,499 | 986 |
| Rockets (Space) | (7) | 357 | 185 |
| SpaceX total | 2,791 | 8,809 | 3,644 |
Source: SpaceX results release of October 20, 2026. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure, one outside standard accounting rules, defined by the company. From operating profit to net income: interest income 873, interest expense (675), other income 1,025 (of which 561 with a related party), tax benefit 390, net income 4,404. Nine months of 2026: operating profit 705, net loss (413).
How much money do SpaceX rockets bring in?
Rockets and spacecraft brought in about $12 of every $100 SpaceX took in during the quarter, and that business was close to breaking even.
The Space business brought in $1.8 billion, up 6% from a year earlier, and lost $7 million from operations. Its costs rose by $367 million as SpaceX put more into building Starship.
SpaceX flew 35 launches in the quarter, 12 of them for paying customers. The others were its own missions.
Starship, its giant new rocket, made its first orbital flight and its first flight that earned revenue, carrying 26 of the newer V3 Starlink satellites. SpaceX says that one launch added about ten times the download capacity of a Falcon 9 Starlink launch.
SpaceX’s figures by quarter are also on its StockTitan financials page and stock overview.
How we counted
Every figure comes from SpaceX’s results release for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, filed with the SEC on October 20, 2026. The one exception is the full year 2025, which comes from the June 2026 prospectus.
Shares of revenue and spending are each business’s figure divided by the company total for the same quarter. We round them to the nearest dollar out of $100, so AI revenue of 7,560 out of 14,575 is 51.9%, or about $52.
The spending ratio is AI capital expenditure divided by AI revenue, 16,444 over 7,560 in the third quarter and 39,995 over 10,939 for nine months. Q1 2026 is the nine month figure minus the second and third quarters. Q4 2025 is the full year 2025 minus the first nine months of 2025.
AI revenue without Cursor subtracts the $608 million the release attributes to Cursor from the AI total. The funding gap is spending on property, plant and equipment minus cash from operations for the nine months.
Frequently asked questions
How does SpaceX make money?
From three businesses. In the third quarter of 2026 its AI business brought in $7.6 billion, Starlink internet $5.2 billion and rocket launches $1.8 billion, out of $14.6 billion in total.
Is SpaceX profitable now?
It was in the third quarter of 2026, with net income of $4.4 billion and an operating profit of $2.8 billion. Over the first nine months of 2026 it still shows a net loss of $413 million, because of losses earlier in the year.
How much is SpaceX spending on AI?
Its AI business spent $16.4 billion on equipment and buildings in the third quarter of 2026 and $40.0 billion over the first nine months. That is about $83 of every $100 SpaceX spent on building in that time.
How much money does Starlink make?
Starlink brought in $5.2 billion in the third quarter of 2026, up 69% from a year earlier, and made $2.4 billion of operating profit. Over the first nine months of 2026 it brought in $12.8 billion.
What is Super Intelligence at SpaceX?
It is the name SpaceX now uses for the business it used to report as AI. It includes its Grok AI models and apps, the Cursor software company, computing capacity rented to other companies and advertising.
Where can I read SpaceX’s Q3 2026 earnings report?
StockTitan publishes every SpaceX SEC filing, including the third quarter results 8-K, and you can see where SpaceX stands among the largest companies in the market value ranking.
Sources
- StockTitan: SpaceX Form 8-K with third quarter 2026 results, October 20, 2026
- StockTitan: SpaceX (SPCX) stock overview
- StockTitan: SpaceX (SPCX) financials
- SpaceX Reports Third Quarter 2026 Results, Exhibit 99.1, October 20, 2026
- SpaceX Form 8-K, filed October 20, 2026
- SpaceX IPO prospectus (Form 424B4), filed June 12, 2026
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