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This is CNBC's live coverage of SpaceX's 2026 third-quarter earnings.
SpaceX reported 161% revenue growth for the third quarter, beating Wall Street estimates, as the company's artificial intelligence business grew ninefold. The stock rose about 3% in extended trading on Tuesday.
Here's how the company did compared to LSEG consensus estimates:
It's not immediately clear if the reported earnings are comparable to the LSEG analyst estimate.
SpaceX said in a release that it recorded operating income of $2.8 billion and net income of $4.4 billion. In the same period a year earlier, SpaceX reported a net loss of $1.05 billion.
While SpaceX is best known for its reusable rockets, most of its revenue and profit in recent quarters came from the company's connectivity segment, which consists of its Starlink satellite internet service.
Buzz has been building about Starlink's plans to build a U.S. mobile network after SpaceX, earlier this month, announced that it's buying 800 MHz of low-band spectrum, and after the Federal Communications Commission approved a plan for the company to build out a 15,000-satellite constellation.
SpaceX jumped into AI with the purchase earlier this year of xAI, which was Elon Musk's AI lab. The company has been rapidly expanding that business by renting out capacity to Google, Anthropic and others.
AI, which the company now calls "Super Intelligence," has emerged as SpaceX's largest business. Revenue jumped ninefold to $7.56 billion from $813 million in the same quarter last year. Analysts expected sales of $6.47 billion, according to StreetAccount.
During the third quarter, SpaceX also closed its $60 billion purchase of AI coding startup Cursor.
Meanwhile, SpaceX's launch business was up just slightly in the quarter, with sales rising to $1.77 billion from $1.67 billion a year ago.
Almost all of SpaceX's profit still comes from Starlink. Operating income in the connectivity unit about doubled to $2.37 billion. The AI business swung to a profit of $431 million, while the space division lost $7 million.
What you need to know ahead of the earnings report:
The company boasted in an investor update that Starlink was activated in over 3,800 aircraft as of the end of the quarter. The company counts many major U.S. carriers, including American Airlines, as Starlink customers, with a number of airlines planning to equip their planes with the service.
Musk recently threatened Delta CEO Ed Bastian, saying he would lose his job because his airline hasn't yet made Starlink wireless internet available in their planes.
SpaceX is scheduled to hold its third-quarter earnings call at 4:30 p.m. ET. The company encouraged shareholders to submit questions online ahead of the meeting.
Musk's other public company, Tesla, is scheduled to post third-quarter results on Wednesday. Analysts expect revenue at the electric vehicle maker to dip slightly from a year ago to $27.9 billion, according to LSEG.
Tesla shares are down about 17% this year as of Tuesday, leaving the company with a market cap of almost $1.5 billion.
SpaceX is relatively new to the cloud computing business. Many of its competitors in the space, the so-called neoclouds, have been getting hammered on Wall Street of late on concerns that rising interest rates are going to make the costly buildout financially burdensome.
CoreWeave and Nebius are down 28% so far in October, while IREN has plunged about 35%. Earlier this month, Australian AI data center operator Firmus withdrew its planned IPO, citing market volatility and conditions.
While SpaceX is far less reliant on that side of its business than are the neoclouds, capital costs still matter, and the company is banking on the AI boom continuing. In the second quarter, debt and finance leases increased to $36.8 billion, up from $22 billion the prior period.
Since opening at $150 on June 12, SpaceX shares have edged slightly lower, slipping to $147.50 on Tuesday. That gives Space a market cap of about $2 trillion.
The stock hit a low of $104.83 on Aug. 3, a few days before the first post-IPO lockup expired, making more than 911 million SpaceX shares available for trading.
The lockup lifted on Aug. 6, and the stock rallied, popping 6% initially, then nearly 16% the day after.
SpaceX continues to serve as a critical launch provider to the U.S. Defense Department and NASA.
The business hasn't been historically profitable, but it's the segment that captured the public's interest in the rocket maker. In the second quarter, SpaceX reported launch revenue of $962 million and a net loss of $542 million.
Future profitability hinges on the success of SpaceX's Starship mega-rocket, which is still being developed and tested.
Since the company's last earnings call in August, SpaceX hit multiple milestones, reaching orbit and using Starship to deploy dozens of its new V.3 Starlink satellites during Test Flight 14. But the rocket is still far from reliable or reusable.
Investors are awaiting an update on pending NASA missions and the future of the older Falcon rocket. SpaceX has reportedly stopped allowing other companies to launch their cargo, including satellites, into orbit on Falcon missions.
In its first earnings report in August, SpaceX reported capital expenditures of $18.4 billion, with 80% of that going towards its artificial intelligence division.
That number spooked Wall Street, and shares dropped following the report.
SpaceX and xAI merged in February and the company has been pouring money into its effort to become a major player in AI, a market dominated by OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. The AI division also acquired Cursor in a $60 billion transaction and is now known as either SpaceXAI or SpaceXSI, with the "SI" standing for President Donald Trump's preferred "Super Intelligence."
Wall Street is sounding bullish on SpaceX ahead of its third-quarter earnings report, to be delivered after the bell on Tuesday.
Mizuho has an outperform rating on the stock and a $200 price target, per a Monday note from analyst Brett Linzey. Shares were trading around $148 as of 10:45 a.m. on Tuesday.
"AI is the largest swing factor for 3Q26 revenue and EBITDA. Consensus has AI revenue of $6.30B (+146% Q/Q from $2.56B) and AI adj. EBITDA of $3.32B (from $1.15B)," he wrote.
Analysts are expecting some conversation about deals or competitive plays with cable and telecom companies following SpaceX's acquisition of low-band spectrum earlier this month.
"We expect initial strategic commentary centers around Connectivity and how SPCX can partner/compete its way into global markets, although we think low-band distribution becomes a meaningful intelligence lever over time," Colin Canfield at Cantor Fitzgerald wrote in a Monday note. He has a price target of $246 and an overweight rating on the stock.
Oppenheimer's expectations are more measured. The bank thinks the quarter will be "in-line" with "guidance reiterated."
Musk said Monday that he'll give every child in the U.S. one of his SpaceX shares next year.
With 72 million children under 18 in the U.S. as of July 1, 2025, according to official census data, that would amount a giveaway of about $10.5 billion worth of shares as of the current price.
Musk, the world's richest person with a net worth of over $900 billion, said in a post on X that, "This will be the first of many," without providing further details. However, when it comes to fulfilling his philanthropic promises, Musk has a spotty track record.
A military tier of Starlink, marketed as Starshield, has drawn scrutiny of late as restrictions on the system in Ukraine hindered the country's ability to defend itself against intensifying attacks by Russia.
Ukrainian officials said SpaceX and the Trump administration restricted Starshield without warning last week, causing Ukraine's military forces to lose control of drones moving over 100 miles per hour, as the craft were relying on Starshield for connectivity at those speeds.
Musk said in a post on X that any changes to Starshield should be attributed to the U.S. government and President Donald Trump, though Trump later denied he ordered any such restrictions.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that the restraints remained in place over the weekend.
Investors, meanwhile, have poured capital into potential Starlink competitors, including Eutelsat.
After acquiring xAI in February with its data centers in and around Memphis, Tennessee, SpaceX struck lucrative cloud computing agreements, establishing a new revenue stream.
Deals with Google, Anthropic and Reflection AI, as well as an unnamed customer revealed by SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen at an event last month, amount to potentially tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue for the company.
SpaceX is reportedly in talks to raise up to $40 billion to buy more Nvidia chips to support its AI ambitions.
Investors are looking for updates around this business for SpaceX as it seeks to monetize its AI capacity.
Ahead of earnings, investors are invited to submit questions for the call. One entry that got a lot of upvotes was about timing for a potential merger between SpaceX and Tesla, Musk's automaker.
Musk's companies have had business and financial relations for years, even sharing personnel and some board members.
Tesla invested $2 billion into xAI, which later converted into shares of SpaceX. The AI unit of SpaceX also spent about $430 million last year on Tesla's Megapacks, which are battery energy storage systems, and $143 million on Cybertrucks.
With SpaceX hitting the public market in June, speculation about a more permanet tie-up has been swirling. SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell told CNBC ahead of the IPO that a merger "might make Elon's life a little easier."
A demo of Tesla's next-generation Roadster last week stirred up further merger excitement among Musk fans. The new Roadster was developed with SpaceX and incorporates its technology, including cold gas thrusters, to enable the car to launch, hover and flip in mid-air.