SpaceX's third-quarter revenue exceeds expectations.

October 21 - SpaceX (SPCX.O) financial reports show that driven by growth in artificial intelligence and Starlink businesses, its third-quarter revenue more than doubled, exceeding market expectations; meanwhile, due to investments in computing infrastructure, capital expenditures nearly tripled, and its stock price rose about 3% in after-hours trading at one point.

But SpaceX's own artificial intelligence software—including xAI's Grok—has so far been overshadowed by competitors OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. SpaceX's third-quarter revenue was $14.58 billion, higher than analysts' expectations of $12.72 billion, and it achieved a net profit of $4.4 billion in the three months ended September 30, while analysts had previously expected $1.57 billion. AI revenue grew more than ninefold to $7.6 billion, mainly from leasing computing power; but of the company's $19.6 billion in capital expenditures, AI accounted for $16.4 billion, and SpaceX expects this level to remain unchanged in the near term.

In the third quarter, Starlink users reached 13.6 million, higher than analysts' expectations of 12.19 million, but this growth came at a cost: as the company expanded overseas by launching cheaper packages, average revenue per user per month has fallen from $99 in 2023 to $69 in the third quarter.