SpaceX earns $4.4 billion as AI revenue outstrips Connectivity; Musk floats Tesla merger
SpaceX reported third-quarter revenue of $14.6 billion, up 161% from a year earlier, and a net profit of $4.4 billion, beating Wall Street forecasts on Tuesday. On the earnings call, Elon Musk said SpaceX and Tesla had each formed special committees to explore a merger.
AI is now the biggest business
SpaceX's second report as a public company showed its AI unit outgrowing everything else. Segment revenue was $7.56 billion, up from $813 million a year earlier, according to the company's release.
Connectivity, which includes Starlink, grew 69% to $5.25 billion. The Space segment, which covers launches, took in $1.77 billion. All three beat analyst estimates, Axios reported.
| Segment | Q3 2026 revenue | Q3 2025 | Consensus (S&P Capital IQ) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Super Intelligence (AI) | $7.56bn | $0.81bn | $6.47bn |
| Connectivity | $5.25bn | $3.10bn | $4.90bn |
| Space | $1.77bn | $1.67bn | $1.46bn |
| Total | $14.58bn | $5.58bn | $13bn |
Sources: SpaceX earnings release; Axios.
The company said it flew its first revenue-generating Starship mission, carrying 26 Starlink V3 satellites, and reached 1.7 gigawatts of nameplate computing capacity by 30 September.
The spending question
The quarter's capital spending was $19.6 billion, and $16.4 billion of it went to the AI segment. That matters because investors are increasingly asking whether AI infrastructure spending will pay off.
Axios pointed to a Gartner report last week warning that more than $3.5 trillion of AI infrastructure spending "could be exposed to impairment" by the end of 2030.
Tesla merger talk
Musk said both boards had formed committees of independent directors at shareholders' request. He said he cannot take part in their discussions because he is "a conflicted party".
I think some people out there assume that a SpaceX and Tesla merger is a certainty and I think that would be overstating it.
He added that he saw "a lot of merit" in combining them. No terms have been agreed, TechCrunch reported. Musk controls more than 50% of SpaceX's voting power. At Tesla, a deal would need a 50% vote from all shareholders, not just those who vote, TechCrunch reported.
