SpaceX (SPCX.US) Q3 revenue surged 161% year over year and turned a loss into profit. Super Smart's business revenue soared 830%

The Zhitong Finance App learned that on Tuesday, Musk's SpaceX (SPCX.US) announced financial results for the third quarter of 2026. Driven by the rapid expansion of the super-smart business and the continued growth of Starlink's business, the company's revenue for the quarter surged 161% year over year, turning a loss into a profit. Among them, super-smart business revenue soared 830% year over year, becoming the company's largest source of revenue for the first time.

According to financial reports, SpaceX's third-quarter revenue reached 14.575 billion US dollars, up 161% from 5.576 billion US dollars in the same period last year, and up about 87% from 7.814 billion US dollars in the second quarter.

In the third quarter, the company's operating profit reached US$2,791 million, compared with an operating loss of US$273 million in the same period last year and an operating loss of US$143 million in the second quarter; net profit reached US$4.404 billion, a significant improvement over the net loss of US$1,054 million in the same period last year, turning a loss into a profit.

According to US GAAP, SpaceX's diluted earnings per share for the third quarter were $0.35, compared to a loss of $0.36 per share for the same period last year. Based on non-US GAAP, the company's adjusted profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization for the third quarter reached US$8.809 billion, an increase of 306% over US$2,169 billion in the same period of the previous year, and an increase of about 149% over US$3,538 billion in the second quarter.

However, SpaceX's capital expenditure in the third quarter reached 19.593 billion US dollars, an increase of about 185% over the same period last year of 6.880 billion US dollars, mainly reflecting the company's continued increase in investment in superintelligent computing infrastructure.

Super smart business revenue soared 830% year over year and became the largest source of revenue for the first time

By business, the super smart business became the main driving force behind SpaceX's third-quarter performance growth. In the third quarter, SpaceX's super-smart business revenue reached US$7.56 billion, up 830% from US$813 million in the same period last year, and 195% from US$2,561 million in the second quarter, accounting for about 52% of the company's total revenue.

Among them, revenue from super intelligent solutions and infrastructure reached US$7.022 million, a significant increase from US$359 million in the same period last year, mainly due to the launch of a new cloud service agreement, the acquisition of artificial intelligence programming company Cursor, and the expansion of the application of the Grok model in the enterprise and consumer markets.

The operating profit of the Super Smart Business reached US$431 million in the third quarter, compared with an operating loss of US$1,722 million in the same period last year and an operating loss of US$1,257 million in the second quarter, turning a loss into a profit. The adjusted EBITDA of the business reached US$4.953 billion, compared with a loss of US$428 million in the same period last year.

SpaceX said that the operating profit of the super-smart business in the third quarter has been included in approximately $1.2 billion in equity incentive expenses associated with the acquisition of Cursor.

In terms of artificial intelligence infrastructure, as of September 30, the company's nominal computing capacity reached 1.7 gigawatts (GW), up from 1.4 gigawatts at the end of the second quarter and 0.6 gigawatts in the same period last year, mainly driven by the continued expansion of COLOSSUS II computing infrastructure.

In addition, the company signed more cloud service agreements in the third quarter and launched Grok Bot, an all-weather autonomous intelligent system, to further expand the commercialization scale of the super-smart business.

Notably, SpaceX completed the acquisition of Cursor on August 14, and the implied equity valuation of the deal was $60 billion. According to financial reports, Cursor contributed $608 million in revenue to SpaceX between the completion of the acquisition and September 30.

Starlink business revenue increased 69% year-on-year, and the number of users reached 13.6 million

As another major revenue pillar of SpaceX, the connectivity business continued to grow strongly in the third quarter. According to financial reports, SpaceX's third-quarter connectivity business revenue reached US$5.248 billion, up 69% year on year, up 22% month on month; operating profit reached US$2,367 billion, up 99% year on year; adjusted EBITDA reached US$3.499 billion, up 82% year on year.

Among them, Starlink's consumer business revenue was US$3.121 billion, up 57% year on year, up 26% month on month; corporate and government business revenue reached US$2,127 billion, up 91% year on year and 18% month on month, indicating that demand from enterprise and government customers continues to expand.

In terms of user size, as of September 30, Starlink consumer subscribers reached 13.6 million, an increase of 1.6 million from 12 million at the end of the second quarter, and an increase of about 89% over 7.2 million in the same period last year. Meanwhile, the average monthly revenue of Starlink consumers reached $69 per user, up about 5% from $66 in the second quarter, but still lower than $83 in the same period last year.

SpaceX said Starlink's continued expansion in developed markets has boosted user growth. Furthermore, by the end of the third quarter, more than 3,800 aircraft around the world had been equipped with Starlink services.

In terms of mobile communications business, the company signed an agreement on October 8 to acquire a combination of licenses in the 800 MHz band and up to 14 MHz of paired spectrum across the United States to advance Starlink Mobile's strategy. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2027 and is still subject to regulatory approval and other customary delivery conditions.

Aerospace business revenue increased 6% year-on-year, Starship carried out a revenue-generating mission for the first time

In terms of space business (Space), SpaceX's third-quarter revenue reached US$1,767 billion, up 6% year on year and 84% month on month. Among them, launch service revenue was US$1,130 million, up 13% year on year; revenue from launch and development business was US$637 million, down from US$666 million in the same period last year.

However, due to the continued increase in R&D investment in the Starship project, the aerospace business still recorded an operating loss of 7 million US dollars in the third quarter, compared with an operating profit of 259 million US dollars in the same period last year. The adjusted EBITDA of the business was US$357 million, down from US$674 million in the same period last year.

In terms of operating data, SpaceX completed a total of 35 launch missions in the third quarter, down from 44 in the same period last year. Among them, there were 12 commercial customer launch missions and 23 internal launch missions.

By the end of September, the company had completed 113 launch missions during the year and put 1,517 tons of payloads into orbit. It is worth noting that SpaceX completed the 14th Starship mission in the third quarter. This is also the first time that the Starship has entered orbit and carried out a revenue-generating mission. The mission successfully deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites to the Starlink broadband constellation.

The company said that the increased downlink capacity of this launch is about 10 times that of a Falcon 9 Starlink launch mission. Furthermore, SpaceX announced plans to build a next-generation space port, StarBase Louisiana, in the US state of Louisiana to support thousands of future starship launches every year, with the goal of carrying out the first launch in 2029.

Capital expenditure exceeded US$48 billion in the first three quarters, and AI infrastructure investment continued to expand

Despite SpaceX's profit in the third quarter, artificial intelligence infrastructure construction still required huge capital expenditure requirements. According to financial reports, the company's capital expenditure in the third quarter reached 19.593 billion US dollars, of which the capital expenditure of the super smart business was 16.444 billion US dollars, accounting for about 84% of the total capital expenditure; the capital expenses of the connectivity business and aerospace business were 1,543 billion US dollars and 1,606 billion US dollars, respectively.

In the first nine months of this year, SpaceX's cumulative capital expenditure reached 48.069 billion US dollars, an increase of about 247% over the same period last year of 13.846 billion US dollars. Among them, the capital expenditure of the super-smart business reached US$39.995 billion, an increase of nearly four times over US$8.077 billion in the same period last year.

In terms of cash flow, the company's net cash flow from operating activities in the first nine months of this year was US$13.097 billion, up from US$4.120 billion in the same period last year. However, the net cash outflow from investing activities during the same period reached US$84.611 billion.

By the end of September, SpaceX held $51,294 billion in cash and cash equivalents, and another $38.561 billion in marketable securities, totaling about US$89.855 billion.

According to the balance sheet, by the end of the third quarter, the company's total assets reached US$254.045 billion, a significant increase from US$92,079 billion at the end of 2025; shareholders' equity reached US$176.768 billion.

SpaceX's chief financial officer said in the financial report that the company's strong performance in the third quarter was due to the continued growth of the connectivity business and the obvious growth inflection point in the super-smart business. The leading position in the launch business, Starlink's recurring revenue, and large-scale expansion of super-intelligent infrastructure are jointly driving the improvement of the company's operating leverage.