SpaceX posted its first earnings report since its record June IPO Tuesday, beating revenue estimates by a wide margin but sending its stock down roughly 8% in after-hours trading as capital expenditures came in far above expectations.
The company reported revenue of $7.81 billion for the second quarter, up 92% from $4.1 billion a year earlier and well ahead of the $6.93 billion analysts had expected. Its net loss narrowed to $541 million from $1 billion a year ago, and its per-share loss of 9 cents was considerably better than the 26-cent loss analysts had anticipated. Adjusted EBITDA jumped 191% to $3.5 billion.
All three of SpaceX’s business segments beat analyst estimates. The Connectivity segment, which includes Starlink satellite internet, generated $4.3 billion in revenue, up 66% year-over-year, with Starlink reaching 12 million subscribers — double the level from a year ago. It was the only segment to post an operating profit, at $1.66 billion. The AI segment, encompassing the xAI business, the X social media platform and cloud services, brought in $2.56 billion in revenue, up 247% year-over-year, driven by new cloud service agreements. The Space segment generated $962 million in revenue, up 29%, though it posted an operating loss of $542 million as research and development costs for the Starship program continued to climb.
The headline numbers were overshadowed by capital expenditures of $18.4 billion for the quarter, which rattled investors who were already wary of the heavy spending required to build out the company’s AI infrastructure. Shares had rallied roughly 10% during Tuesday’s regular session — their strongest showing since the IPO — before reversing sharply once the results were released.
On the earnings call, CFO Bret Johnsen said SpaceX is on pace to reach $100 billion in annualized recurring revenue by year-end, and disclosed that in the first few weeks of the current quarter the company contracted an additional $6.7 billion in cloud services revenue set to begin ramping in October. Johnsen said the figure assumes contributions from Cursor, the AI coding tool that is part of the company’s AI segment.
SpaceX has had a turbulent debut as a public company. It raised $85.7 billion at $135 per share in the largest IPO in history in June, but shares had fallen roughly 16% from that level by Tuesday’s close. A failed Starship engine ignition in July contributed to a string of consecutive down sessions. A major overhang looms: a lockup expiration later this week is expected to free up more than $100 billion in shares for trading, which analysts say could add further pressure to the stock.