What SpaceX (SPCX) Said on Its Q3 Earnings Call

Key Points

• SpaceX reported a sharp financial turnaround: Q3 2026 revenue rose 161% year over year to $14.6 billion, while net income reached $4.4 billion versus a $1.1 billion loss a year earlier. Growth was led by Starlink connectivity and the superintelligence infrastructure business.
• The SI business became SpaceX’s largest revenue contributor, generating $7.6 billion in quarterly revenue, while compute capacity is expected to expand from 1.7 gigawatts to as much as 3 gigawatts by year-end.
• SpaceX is accelerating investment and expansion: Q3 capital spending was $19.6 billion, with Q4 spending projected at $35 billion to $40 billion. The company reaffirmed its goal of reaching a $100 billion annualized revenue run rate by the end of 2026 and plans to increase Starship launch frequency in 2027.

SpaceX NASDAQ: SPCX reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of $14.6 billion, up 161% from a year earlier, as growth in Starlink connectivity and its superintelligence, or SI, infrastructure business drove a return to profitability. Net income was $4.4 billion, compared with a net loss of $1.1 billion in the prior-year period, while adjusted EBITDA rose 306% to $8.8 billion.

Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said the company’s revenue growth reflected “continued momentum in the connectivity business” and what he called an inflection point in the SI business. SpaceX ended the quarter with $63 billion of backlog, including $17.5 billion of deferred revenue. About $42 billion of the backlog is expected to be recognized within the next year, he said.

Starship milestones and launch expansion

Chief Executive Officer and Chief Engineer Elon Musk said Starship Flight 14 reached orbit for the first time and deployed operational Starlink V3 satellites. The company expects Flight 15 to occur next month and plans to attempt recovery of both the booster and ship using its launch tower.

Musk said success is “more likely than not” on the next flight, though he cautioned that it is not guaranteed. SpaceX expects Starship flights to reach a weekly cadence during the first half of 2027 and potentially twice-weekly or more by the end of next year as it works toward rapid and complete vehicle reusability.

President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said SpaceX completed 35 launches during the quarter, including 21 Starlink Falcon 9 missions, two Starship flights, one Falcon Heavy launch and 12 customer missions. The company also flew six national-security space-launch missions.

Among new contracts, SpaceX secured three additional Dragon human-spaceflight missions through 2028, a Starlink communications contract for NASA’s Artemis III mission, 18 national-security launch missions, a Starship lunar-payload contract and three Starfall missions. Starfall is the company’s capsule program for scientific research in microgravity.

SpaceX is also developing a Louisiana Spaceport. Musk said the company’s internal target is for a first Starship launch from Louisiana in 2028, while describing a 2029 first launch as “highly likely” and saying the company expects to be launching at scale from the site in 2029.

Starlink subscriber and aviation growth

Connectivity segment revenue reached $5.2 billion, rising 69% year over year and 22% sequentially. The segment recorded gross margins of 55%, including a roughly 3-percentage-point one-time benefit primarily related to tariff refunds, Johnsen said.

Starlink added 1.6 million consumer subscribers during the quarter, reaching 13.6 million broadband consumer subscribers. Monthly average revenue per user increased 5% sequentially to $69, benefiting from customer mix, according to Johnsen.

Shotwell said Starlink ended the quarter active in 174 markets, including newly launched markets in Vietnam and Uganda. Enterprise and government revenue increased 91% year over year and 18% from the prior quarter, led by Starshield and aviation demand.

• Starlink is contracted for roughly 12,000 aircraft, according to Shotwell.
• The company has agreements with three of the four major U.S. carriers, as well as international airlines including Lufthansa, Swiss, Copa Airlines, Korean Air, Austrian Airlines and Asiana Airlines.
• SpaceX quadrupled aviation-production rates since the beginning of the year and expects to double them again before year-end.
• Starlink Mobile surpassed 22 million monthly users, up 37% quarter over quarter.

Shotwell said the company expects a few hundred V3 satellites will be needed before users see sustained performance improvements in high-demand areas. SpaceX expects to reach that level by the middle of next year.

The company plans to begin flying Starlink Mobile V2 satellites on Starship in 2027 and is targeting service activation using its newly acquired spectrum portfolio in early 2028. Shotwell said the company recently received Federal Communications Commission approval to launch 15,000 Mobile V2 satellites.

SI business becomes largest revenue contributor

SpaceX’s SI segment generated $7.6 billion in revenue during the quarter, up $5 billion sequentially and $6.7 billion from a year earlier. SI adjusted EBITDA was $5 billion, while operating income was $431 million.

Johnsen said that excluding $1.2 billion of stock-based compensation associated with the Cursor acquisition, SI operating profit would have been $1.6 billion. The company acquired Cursor during the quarter, and $608 million of SI solutions and infrastructure revenue came from that acquisition.

The company ended the quarter with 1.7 gigawatts of nameplate compute capacity and expects to approach 2 gigawatts by the end of October. Musk said SpaceX expects to have 2.5 to 3 gigawatts online by year-end and expressed confidence it can add 10 gigawatts of capacity during 2027, bringing total capacity to at least 13 gigawatts.

Musk said the company is targeting a roughly even split between internal compute use and external cloud customers, although that allocation could shift over time. He said SpaceX intends to favor short-term compute agreements rather than long-term contracts because it expects the value of compute per watt to rise as AI models improve.

Grok Bot, the company’s agentic assistant launched in August, had 800,000 paid weekly users earlier this month, more than doubling in the prior month, Shotwell said. She added that enterprise customers with more than $1 million in run-rate revenue, including Cursor, increased 50% quarter over quarter on a pro forma basis.

Capital spending and outlook

Capital expenditures totaled $19.6 billion in the third quarter, primarily for SI compute infrastructure, Starship infrastructure and satellite production. SpaceX expects fourth-quarter capital expenditures of $35 billion to $40 billion as additional compute capacity comes online.

The company reaffirmed its goal of reaching $100 billion in annualized revenue by the end of 2026, based on December revenue. It also forecast first-quarter 2027 revenue of $33 billion to $37 billion.

During the question-and-answer session, Musk said SpaceX and Tesla have each established independent special committees to discuss a potential merger at shareholder request. He said the committees have not agreed on transaction terms and that there is no guarantee a deal will occur.

About SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX)

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly known as SpaceX, is a privately held aerospace company founded in 2002 by Elon Musk. The company develops and operates launch vehicles and spacecraft designed to reduce the cost of access to space and support commercial, government and scientific missions.

SpaceX’s principal products and services include the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, the Dragon spacecraft and the Starlink satellite communications network. Falcon rockets are used to launch satellites, cargo and crew, while Dragon spacecraft support transportation to and from low Earth orbit.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.