SpaceX’s AI business is beating expectations
SpaceX hit profitably in the third-quarter, with net income of $4.4 billion. AI was the engine.
Buy One Founder Summit Ticket, Get a Second for Free. Register now.
Disrupt doors open Oct. 13. Get your pass and bring someone with you at 50% off. REGISTER NOW.
TechCrunch Desktop Logo TechCrunch Mobile Logo Latest Startups Venture Apple Security AI Apps Disrupt 2026 Events Podcasts Newsletters Search Submit Site Search Toggle Mega Menu Toggle Topics Latest
SpaceX’s AI business is beating expectations Tim Fernholz 1:40 PM PDT · October 20, 2026 SpaceX’s data centers and Grok agents have been more profitable than investors expected in second quarter of the year, as the company leaves its roots as a space company behind to focus on artificial intelligence, which now makes up 52% of its income.
Elon Musk’s deep conglomerate reported on Tuesday $14.6 billion in third-quarter revenue, according to its regulatory filing. That number was driven by growth in all segments, but especially it’s renamed “Super Intelligence” business line, which includes the recently-acquired Cursor coding tool, Grok bot, and most importantly, the company’s burgeoning neocloud business, which now boasts 1.7 GW of compute.
That number was also boosted by about $1 billion in income related to the recovery of bitcoin prices and an unspecified related-party income that might be attributed to a SpaceX investment in another company.
The growing revenue is balanced against total capital expenditures of $19.6 billion, as SpaceX continues to build out a second data center project, Colossus II, and increase investment in Starship, the heavy lift rocket it sees as vital to deploying a new generation of Starlink satellites and developing orbital data centers.
In spite of those capital expenditures, the company’s revenue boost was substantial enough to push it back into profitability. SpaceX reported net income of $4.4 billion, a turnaround from the $1 billion loss in the same quarter last year. It will still have some catching up if it wants to remain profitable for the year, however. In the first nine months of the year, SpaceX still had a net income loss of $413 million.
CEO Elon Musk took a particularly bullish stance on the company’s Superintelligence business segment, predicting that SpaceX’s annual recurring revenue by the end of 2027 will be “somewhere between $500 billion and $1 trillion.”
This is a developing story. TechCrunch will update.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.
November 4 Boston Buy One Pass, Get a Second Free Cover more ground at TechCrunch’s ultimate founder bootcamp of the year by bringing your co-founder or partner for free Book before the BOGO deal expires
People are using AI to make their smart TVs dumb again Sarah Perez
Everyone’s watching the Elizabeth Holmes documentary ‘You Can See Everything’ Anthony Ha
Anthropic says its workforce has become less junior and is spending more time in meetings Anthony Ha
Replit makes OpenAI its default over Anthropic, CEO says Kirsten Korosec Lucas Ropek Rebecca Bellan
Mark Wahlberg wants to take on the longevity-startup crowd with an affordable gym concept Connie Loizos
India becomes the latest country to report rogue AI agent activity Aditya Mehta
Tesla reveals SpaceX-powered Roadster that flies and falls with style Sean O'Kane
X LinkedIn Facebook Instagram youTube Mastodon Threads Bluesky TechCrunch Staff Contact Us Advertise Site Map Terms of Service Privacy Policy RSS Terms of Use Code of Conduct Voice AI Anthropic Flock Startup Battlefield Disrupt 2026 Tech Layoffs ChatGPT © 2026 TechCrunch Media LLC.