SpaceX shares rise 7.8% as quarterly earnings and revenue beat analyst forecasts
Key Facts
SpaceX shares rose 7.8% on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, after the company reported quarterly earnings that beat analyst expectations, according to the Associated Press. The gains followed the earnings announcement, which the company had scheduled for after the market close on Tuesday, October 20, according to an investor relations statement. Third-quarter revenue reached $14.6 billion, exceeding analyst expectations of $12.72 billion, Reuters reported, citing the London Stock Exchange Group consensus. The company's filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed revenue rose 161% from the third quarter a year earlier. The company had reported revenue of $5.6 billion in the comparable period of 2025. On the bottom line, SpaceX swung from a loss a year earlier to a quarterly profit of $4.4 billion, according to the Associated Press. Earnings per share reached 35 cents in the third quarter of 2026, beating Wall Street expectations.
The improvement in profitability extended to adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, which reached $8.8 billion in the third quarter, according to the company's filing. SpaceX compared the result with $2.2 billion in the same period a year earlier, representing annual growth of 306% in the non-GAAP measure. In the superintelligence segment, revenue reached about $7.6 billion during the reported quarter. The company said in the filing that segment revenue rose 195% from the previous quarter and 830% year on year. It attributed the growth to new cloud services agreements coming into effect, alongside the acquisition of Cursor. In describing the growth drivers, it cited "cloud services agreements and the acquisition of Cursor" as part of its explanation for the surge in the segment's business. SpaceX added that increased adoption of Grok among businesses and consumers also contributed to growth in its superintelligence business during the period.
SpaceX's artificial intelligence business relies heavily on providing computing infrastructure to other developers, according to Reuters' coverage of the quarterly results. The news agency said the company generates most of its revenue in this area "primarily from renting out data center capacity." Companies renting that capacity include Anthropic, Google and Reflection AI, according to Reuters, with greater reliance on rentals than on SpaceX's own models. In the Starlink business, consumer subscribers reached 13.6 million at the end of the third quarter of 2026, according to the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The service added 1.6 million consumer subscribers from the previous quarter, alongside the expansion of the company's computing and artificial intelligence businesses. Alongside the earnings announcement, Musk said SpaceX had taken a step to consider a potential merger with Tesla, according to the Associated Press. The news agency described the step as intended to "consider a potential merger with Tesla."
SpaceX warned that geographic expansion beyond wealthier countries could reduce average revenue per user over time, according to Reuters' coverage of the results. The warning relates to the service's expansion into markets outside wealthier countries as its subscriber base continues to grow. On spending, the company's capital expenditure reached $19.6 billion in the third quarter of 2026, according to the Associated Press. The news agency described the amount as nearly three times the spending recorded in the same period a year earlier. The company expects a further increase in spending during the fourth quarter of 2026, the current quarter at the time of the earnings announcement. SpaceX set the lower end of its forecast at $35 billion, according to the Associated Press. The upper end of the forecast range reaches $40 billion, as the company moves from actual spending in the reported quarter to a larger spending program in the current quarter.