2 Reasons to Buy SpaceX Stock -- and 1 Reason to Wait

Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX), or SpaceX for short, went public about two and a half months ago, with a first-day open price of $150. It closed at about $142 on Aug. 28, so it has gotten cheaper, although the price fluctuates often.

If you wanted more information about SpaceX before investing, there are now a couple of months of trading data and its first earnings report as a public company available. Based on that, here are two good reasons to buy SpaceX stock and one reason to keep waiting.

Starlink is growing quickly and is highly profitable

SpaceX has three business segments, and the Space segment soaks up much of the attention. It's hard to compete with rocket launches and plans to go to Mars, after all. But the Connectivity segment, built around its Starlink satellites, is the real moneymaker.

Connectivity made revenue of $4.3 billion in Q2 2026, up 66% year over year. That also accounted for 55% of the company's total revenue, and Connectivity was the only profitable segment, with operating income of $1.7 billion.

Starlink has a dominant market share. Ookla reported that 97% of its global speed test samples for satellite internet came from Starlink users in Q3 2025. The potential issue is that it doesn't have much room to expand, since it already controls so much of the market, but Starlink's subscriber numbers suggest otherwise. It went from six million subscribers in Q2 2025 to 12 million in Q2 2026. SpaceX also acquired wireless spectrum licenses from EchoStar last year, which drives further growth by enabling Starlink to provide direct-to-cell service.

SpaceX's unique AI strategy could be a powerful growth engine

SpaceX's artificial intelligence segment, which began with its acquisition of xAI in February, generated $2.6 billion in revenue in Q2 2026. But it's expensive to run, so this segment had an operating loss of $1.3 billion that quarter and $15.8 billion in capex.

While skeptics have balked at this spending, it's a normal part of an AI infrastructure build-out and fuels a multifaceted AI strategy. SpaceX sells compute to major tech and AI companies, including Alphabet and Anthropic. The space company expanded its AI software lineup with the acquisition of Cursor, a popular AI code editor. CEO Elon Musk also has an ambitious long-term vision to launch orbital data centers.

I put more stock in SpaceX's compute deals and AI software, including Grok and Cursor, than in the plans for data centers in space. Regardless, it has a diverse AI stack, which is another reason it's an interesting investment opportunity.

The hype has outrun the fundamentals

Although SpaceX is a genuinely exciting business, it also has some glaring issues. It has a market cap of $1.9 trillion, making it one of the world's largest public companies, despite being unprofitable. SpaceX lost $4.8 billion over the first half of 2026. It also trades at 90 times trailing sales, an extremely rich valuation compared with other companies of its size. Even Tesla, another Musk-led company trading at a premium, trades at 12 times its trailing sales.

Given SpaceX's volatility so far, and the fact that insider shares will gradually unlock in tranches over the rest of the year, it's a very risky investment at this stage. If you're interested, consider waiting to see whether insider unlocks create selling pressure, as that could provide a much better entry point.

Lyle Daly has positions in Alphabet and Tesla. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.