# SpaceX (SPCX): sales up 161% to $14.6bn and a $4.4bn profit, but $19.6bn of spending in one quarter

> SpaceX reported third-quarter sales of $14.58bn, up 161% from a year ago, and net income of $4.40bn against a $1.05bn loss. Most of the growth came…

- URL: https://centiview.com/post/spacex-spcx-sales-up-161-to-14-6bn-as-ai-and-starlink-lift-first-quarterly-profit-but-capex-hits-19-6bn
- Published: 2026-10-21T05:18:00.000Z
- Sectors: Industrials
- Region: US
- Ticker: SPCX
- Sentiment (opinion, not a recommendation): neutral
- Publisher: Centiview (Persie Ltd, London)
- General information only, not financial advice

SpaceX reported third-quarter sales of $14.58bn, up 161% from a year ago, and net income of $4.40bn against a $1.05bn loss. Most of the growth came from its AI business, and $1.4bn of the profit came from items outside its core operations. It also spent $19.6bn on equipment in the quarter.

## What happened

On 20 October 2026 SpaceX filed an 8-K, the form US companies use to report major events to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with results for the three months to 30 September. The company now reports three segments. Space covers launches and Starship, the large rocket under development. Connectivity covers Starlink, its satellite internet service. Super Intelligence (SI) is the segment previously called Artificial Intelligence, and its filing mentions the Grok chatbot, advertising revenue, cloud services agreements and the acquisition of Cursor. A cloud services agreement means SpaceX rents computing power to other companies. SI is now the largest segment, at 51.9% of sales.

Sales were $14,575m against $5,576m a year earlier and $7,814m last quarter. Income from operations, the profit from running the business before interest and tax, was $2,791m, against a loss of $273m a year ago. SpaceX also reported 13.6 million Starlink consumer subscribers, up from 7.2 million a year ago and 12.0 million last quarter, and 35 launches in the quarter against 44 a year ago. The release gave no numerical forecast. Analysts had expected sales of about $12.7bn, according to Teslarati's pre-results consensus, so sales came in above expectations. That expectation is an estimate, not a company figure.

## The numbers, explained

Sales by segment, in $m, this quarter against a year ago: Space 1,767 against 1,666 (up 6.1%); Connectivity 5,248 against 3,097 (up 69.5%); SI 7,560 against 813 (up 829.9%). The three add up to the $14,575m total. Total sales rose 161.4% (14,575 / 5,576 = 2.614) and 86.5% from last quarter (14,575 / 7,814). Starlink consumer revenue rose 57.2% to $3,121m, and enterprise and government revenue rose 91.4% to $2,127m. Revenue per consumer subscriber was $69 a month, up from $66 last quarter but down 16.9% from $83 a year ago, so growth came from more customers, not higher prices.

The profit needs care. Net income of $4,404m is under GAAP, the standard accounting rules. It starts from $2,791m of operating income. Interest expense of $675m is subtracted, and interest income of $873m, other income of $1,025m and a tax benefit of $390m are added (2,791 - 675 + 873 + 1,025 = 4,014 before tax; 4,014 + 390 = 4,404, our working). The release does not itemise the other income. Together, other income and the tax benefit were $1,415m, or 32% of net income. Diluted earnings per share, profit per share allowing for shares that could be issued, were $0.35 on 12,475m shares (4,404 / 12,475 = $0.353).

Adjusted EBITDA, the company's own non-GAAP measure that removes depreciation, share-based pay, interest, tax and other items, was $8,809m, up 306% from $2,169m, a margin of 60.4% of sales. We recomputed its reconciliation from net income and it matches. Share-based pay, shares handed to staff instead of cash, was $1,146m, plus $1,217m linked to acquisitions. Adding the second figure back to SI operating income of $431m gives about $1.65bn, which shows how much the Cursor deal's staff awards weigh on the reported figure.

## Why it matters

SpaceX earns money in three ways. It sells launches, charges monthly fees for Starlink, and, increasingly, rents out computing power and runs AI products. The SI segment earned $7.56bn this quarter against $0.81bn a year ago. Its compute, measured as nameplate capacity, the maximum electricity its computer sites are built to use, reached 1.7 gigawatts, up from 1.4 last quarter and 0.6 a year ago. For customers, that means more places to rent AI computing power. For rivals, it means a company known for rockets now competes with cloud and AI firms.

The cost is large. Capital expenditure, spending on equipment and buildings, was $19,593m, up 184.8% from $6,880m a year ago (19,593 / 6,880 = 2.848). SI took $16,444m of it, or 83.9%. Over nine months, capital spending was $48,069m, while cash from operations was $13,097m. Cash and marketable securities were $89,855m (51,294 + 38,561) against $38,844m of debt and finance leases, so the gap was funded by $85,675m of net proceeds from its share offering this year. Sales growth is also concentrated: SI, started from a small base, supplied most of the increase.

## What to watch next

The filing does not state a date for the next results, so we give none. SpaceX held a webcast on 20 October, and a transcript is on its investor site, ir.spacex.com. Readers can track the same measures next quarter: SI sales and compute capacity, Starlink subscribers (13.6 million) and monthly revenue per subscriber ($69), quarterly capital spending ($19.6bn here), and how much of net income comes from items outside operations. Speakers on the call also discussed a possible SpaceX and Tesla combination being reviewed by special committees, with no terms agreed, according to a Motley Fool transcript; we have not confirmed this in a filing.

- GAAP: the standard accounting rules companies must report under
- Adjusted EBITDA: the company's own profit measure that excludes interest, tax, depreciation and other items
- Capital expenditure: money spent on equipment, buildings and other long-lasting assets
- Nameplate compute: the maximum power capacity of the company's AI computer sites

> **Why it matters** SpaceX has grown from a rocket company into a satellite internet and AI computing business. Sales and operating profit rose sharply, but spending on equipment is also very high.

> **What we verified** Sales $14,575m vs $5,576m, operating income $2,791m, net income $4,404m, diluted EPS $0.35, adjusted EBITDA $8,809m, segment sales, capex $19,593m, 13.6m Starlink subscribers, cash $51,294m and securities $38,561m: SpaceX Q3 2026 earnings release, Form 8-K (SEC); sales, net income, adjusted EBITDA, segments, capex, subscribers, 1.7 GW compute and sales estimates: Teslarati; sales, net income, adjusted EBITDA, segments, subscribers, capex: Motley Fool call transcript. The $1,025m other income is not itemised in the release. We left out the share price reaction and forward guidance, which we could not confirm in two sources. All percentages, margins and sums are our own working.

### Sources
- [SpaceX Q3 2026 earnings release, Form 8-K (SEC), 20 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001181412/000162828026066482/spaceexplorationtechnologi.htm)
- [SpaceX delivers blockbuster Q3 results as Super Intelligence segment booms (Teslarati)](https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-spcx-delivers-blockbuster-q3-results-super-intelligence-booms/)
- [SpaceX (SPCX) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript (Motley Fool)](https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2026/10/20/spacex-spcx-q3-2026-earnings-call-transcript/)
- [SpaceX Form 8-K cover, 20 October 2026 (SEC)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001181412/000162828026066482/spcx-20261020.htm)