SpaceX posted a $4.4 billion profit as AI revenue surged. Tesla and SpaceX committees are weighing a merger.
SpaceX reported a third-quarter net profit of $4.4 billion on Tuesday as revenue more than doubled, driven by its artificial intelligence business. Revenue rose 161% to $14.58 billion for the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with analysts’ estimates of $12.72 billion, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters. Analysts had expected a profit of $1.57 billion. SpaceX posted a net loss of $541 million on revenue of $7.81 billion in the second quarter. Its shares rose about 2.5% in extended trading.
AI revenue rose more than ninefold to $7.6 billion, about half of the company’s total, Reuters reported. Most of it comes from renting data-center computing capacity to developers including Anthropic, Google and Reflection AI, rather than from SpaceX’s own models. Capital spending nearly tripled to $19.6 billion, of which $16.4 billion went to AI, and SpaceX expects it to stay near that level. Starlink and the company’s connectivity operations remain its main financial engine, Reuters said.
On the earnings call, Elon Musk said the boards of SpaceX and Tesla have each formed a special committee of independent directors to review a possible merger, TechCrunch reported. He said the committees were created at shareholders’ request and that he is not on either, because he is a conflicted party. Musk, the chief executive and largest individual shareholder of both companies, said he thinks a merger would be a good idea but that it is not certain and would need shareholder support. He said the committees have not agreed on terms.
Musk holds more than 50% of SpaceX’s voting power after its initial public offering, which would ease approval on that side, TechCrunch reported. At Tesla, he said, a merger would need approval from a majority of all outstanding shares, not just those voted. He cited potential gains from cooperating on AI software, robotics, SpaceX’s orbital data-center project and a joint chip-manufacturing project with Tesla. SpaceX absorbed Musk’s AI company xAI in February. Tesla reports its own quarterly results on Wednesday.
Aurax News compiled this report from information provided by Reuters, TechCrunch, The Globe and Mail and NBC News.