SpaceX posted $7.8B Q1 revenue but revealed $18.4B quarterly capex surge for AI datacenter expansion.
SpaceX reported quarterly revenue of $7.81 billion in its first earnings release as a public company, nearly doubling the $4.1 billion it generated a year earlier and topping the $6.93 billion Wall Street consensus. The results, disclosed on Monday, were driven by surging demand for Starlink satellite internet and a nascent AI compute business that barely existed 18 months ago.
Despite the revenue beat and a narrowing net loss of $541 million—down from $1 billion in Q2 2025—shares fell roughly 8% in extended trading after the company revealed capital expenditures of $18.37 billion in the quarter, more than six times the year-ago figure. The bulk of that spending, $15.83 billion, went toward AI infrastructure, exceeding the $13.22 billion analyst estimate.
The results mark a milestone for a company that went public on June 12 in the largest IPO in history, raising approximately $75 billion at a valuation of $1.75 trillion. Shares opened at $150, above the $135 IPO price, and peaked at $160.95 in their first session. As of pre-market trading on August 5, the stock was at $125.33, down roughly 8% from the IPO price.
Starlink, the satellite internet division, accounted for more than half of SpaceX's total revenue, generating $4.29 billion, up 66% year-over-year, as the subscriber base doubled to 12 million—up 17% from Q1 alone. Average revenue per user declined 22% year-over-year, reflecting international expansion into lower-priced markets and the introduction of cheaper service tiers. Still, Starlink's operating income rose 79%, suggesting margin improvement from scale. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell indicated the company plans to pursue mobile carrier partnerships and build ground-based infrastructure to offer comprehensive mobile connectivity services.
SpaceX's AI business generated $2.56 billion in quarterly revenue, up 247% year-over-year, on compute contracts with Anthropic, Google, and Reflection AI. The company spent $15.83 billion on AI-related capital expenditures in the quarter alone, dwarfing the $749 million it invested a year earlier. SpaceX said it expects to build more than 2 gigawatts of compute capacity in 2026 and roughly 10 gigawatts by the end of 2027. Operating losses in the AI segment narrowed significantly, though the company did not provide a standalone profitability figure for the division.
The legacy space business—commercial launches, government missions, and Starship development—posted 29% revenue growth year-over-year. While still a core part of SpaceX's identity, the segment now represents a smaller share of total revenue as Starlink and AI have scaled.
SpaceX said it expects total capital expenditures to remain at similar levels for the next two quarters, implying roughly $36 billion in additional spending through year-end. The company expects to reach a $100 billion annual revenue run-rate by December 2026, implying a sharp acceleration in the second half of the year.
Shares had rallied 9.4% during the regular session on Monday ahead of the after-hours earnings release, only to give back those gains and more as investors absorbed the scale of AI spending. The stock fell 7.5% in extended trading and dropped an additional 2.3% in pre-market trading on Tuesday, hovering around $125.
For investors, the earnings underscore the tension at the heart of SpaceX's investment case: a company with accelerating topline growth across three distinct business lines, but one willing to spend aggressively enough on AI infrastructure to delay profitability. The net loss of $0.09 per share was better than the $0.26 consensus estimate, but the path to sustained earnings remains dependent on returns from billions in AI capex.