SpaceX Q2 Earnings Call Highlights

Key Points

• SpaceX reported strong Q2 growth: Revenue rose 92% year over year to $7.8 billion, while adjusted EBITDA increased 191% to $3.5 billion and the net loss narrowed to $541 million. The company ended the quarter with $100 billion in cash and marketable securities and $47.5 billion in backlog.
• Starlink continued expanding rapidly: Connectivity revenue increased 66% year over year to $4.3 billion, with more than 1.7 million net consumer subscribers added during the quarter. Enterprise and government connectivity revenue more than doubled, supported by airline agreements and over $6 billion in new U.S. government contracts.
• AI is becoming a major growth engine, but investment remains heavy: AI revenue surged 247% year over year to $2.6 billion, helped by cloud-services agreements, while compute capacity reached 1.4 gigawatts. SpaceX spent $18.4 billion on capital expenditures in Q2—primarily on AI infrastructure—and expects similar spending levels in the following two quarters.

SpaceX NASDAQ: SPCX reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $7.8 billion, up 92% from a year earlier, while its quarterly net loss narrowed by $467 million to $541 million. Adjusted EBITDA rose 191% year over year to $3.5 billion, according to the company’s earnings call.

Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said revenue growth accelerated across the company’s space, connectivity and AI businesses. He said the company also strengthened its balance sheet through its initial public offering and an inaugural investment-grade bond offering.

SpaceX ended the quarter with $100 billion in cash equivalents and marketable securities and $47.5 billion in backlog, Johnsen said. The company raised approximately $85.7 billion in net IPO proceeds and issued $25 billion in senior notes, partly using the proceeds to repay a $20 billion bridge loan.

Starlink subscriber and enterprise growth

The connectivity segment generated $4.3 billion of revenue, increasing 32% sequentially and 66% year over year. The segment’s operating income climbed 79% from the prior-year quarter to $1.7 billion, while adjusted EBITDA rose 64% to $2.6 billion.

President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said Starlink added more than 1.7 million net consumer subscribers during the quarter, its best quarter for new customer additions. Starlink’s average revenue per user was unchanged from the first quarter at $66 per month.

As of June 30, SpaceX had service availability in 167 markets and roughly 10,200 operational Starlink broadband and mobile satellites in orbit, including about 9,600 broadband satellites. Those broadband satellites provided about 800 terabits per second of total downlink capacity, Shotwell said.

Enterprise and government connectivity revenue grew 108% year over year. During the quarter, SpaceX signed an agreement with American Airlines and activated service with Southwest, Virgin Atlantic, Iberia and Aer Lingus. The company also won more than $6 billion in U.S. government contracts supporting Space Force communications and sensing programs.

Shotwell said SpaceX remained less than 10% penetrated in aviation, which management views as a significant growth opportunity. She also cited opportunities in maritime connectivity and said the company had not lost an enterprise customer. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said he expects enterprise revenue eventually to “substantially exceed” consumer revenue.

SpaceX plans to begin deploying its V3 broadband satellites operationally on upcoming Starship missions. Musk said the V3 satellite is expected to be roughly an order of magnitude more capable than the V2 satellite, while the company expects to launch about 10 times as many V3 satellites. He said the combination could produce a substantial increase in delivered bandwidth, though these were forward-looking expectations.

Starship advances and lunar plans

In the first half of 2026, SpaceX completed 78 launches and delivered 1,041 tons of mass to orbit, primarily for internal Starlink missions as well as customer launches, Shotwell said. Space segment revenue was $962 million, up 55% sequentially and 29% year over year, driven by a higher number of larger customer launches and customer mix.

The space segment posted adjusted EBITDA loss of $205 million as the company increased research and development spending on Starship. Johnsen said SpaceX was expanding Raptor and launch-vehicle production, building its Gigabay facility and progressing on launch-pad development at Starbase and Cape Canaveral.

Musk said two Starship B3 flights were completed successfully during the past 90 days. He described Flight 13 as having performed “incredibly well,” adding that the heat shield appeared robust and that the vehicle remained floating in the ocean for recovery and analysis.

Pending regulatory approval, SpaceX intends to attempt a tower catch of the Starship vehicle on its next flight, tentatively planned for the end of the month. Musk said the company could attempt to catch both first and second stages this year and anticipates an increasing flight cadence, potentially reaching at least one flight per day within about a year.

For lunar operations, Shotwell said in-orbit propellant transfer remains critical for SpaceX’s internal plans and its human landing system work. She said the company expects an Artemis III docking with Orion next year, followed by an uncrewed direct lunar cargo mission, with an objective of putting astronauts on the Moon in 2028.

AI revenue surges as compute investment rises

SpaceX’s AI segment reported $2.6 billion in revenue, up 213% sequentially and 247% year over year. The increase was primarily driven by new cloud-services agreements and growth in Grok and X subscription revenue, Johnsen said. Advertising revenue rose 7% sequentially as the company upgraded its advertising platform with AI functionality and enhanced self-service tools.

New cloud-services agreements at the Colossus and Colossus Two sites contributed $1.6 billion of AI infrastructure revenue during the quarter. The AI segment’s adjusted EBITDA turned positive at $1.1 billion, while its operating loss narrowed to $1.3 billion.

SpaceX ended the quarter with 1.4 gigawatts of nameplate compute capacity, compared with 1 gigawatt in the first quarter and 400 megawatts a year earlier. The company expects to exceed 2 gigawatts by year-end. Musk said the company would build exclusively on Nvidia’s Vera Rubin architecture going forward and expects to begin launching Starmind AI satellites next year.

Total second-quarter capital expenditures were about $18.4 billion, including $15.8 billion for AI compute infrastructure. Johnsen said capital spending in each of the next two quarters should be similar to the second-quarter level. He also said new compute deployments currently carry a payback period of less than one year.

In the first weeks of the third quarter, SpaceX contracted an additional $6.7 billion in cloud-services revenue for a six-month period beginning to ramp in October, Johnsen said. Management said it expects to reach a $100 billion annualized revenue run rate based on December revenue, with cloud services providing the largest contribution.

Mobile expansion and outlook

SpaceX plans to begin launching next-generation Starlink Mobile satellites next year and expects to begin providing expanded mobile service by the end of next year. Shotwell said the company’s planned integration of 65 megahertz of EchoStar spectrum, along with a larger satellite fleet, could materially improve the service’s capabilities.

She said SpaceX intends to develop terrestrial components for its mobile offering but did not provide a capital expenditure estimate. Management described a potential approach using smaller cellular stations integrated with Starlink broadband equipment rather than relying exclusively on large conventional cellular base stations.

Musk said SpaceX expects the share of compute dedicated internally to Grok training to decrease over time, estimating that about 10% of its compute capacity could be used for Grok training as more capacity is directed toward inference and third-party compute services.

About SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX)

SpaceX, or Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is an American aerospace company focused on the design, manufacture and launch of advanced rockets and spacecraft. The company develops launch vehicles and space systems used for commercial, government and scientific missions, with a strong emphasis on lowering the cost of access to space through reusable rocket technology.

Founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, SpaceX has built a broad portfolio of products and services that includes the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, the Dragon spacecraft and the Starship development program.

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