SpaceX Earned $4.4B, but Its Quarterly Spending Was Four Times That

SpaceX reported its second set of earnings since its IPO on Tuesday evening. Revenue rose 161% from $5.6B a year earlier to $14.6B. Analysts had expected roughly $12.9B.

Earnings per share came in at 35 cents against an estimate of 15 cents. According to Benzinga, the stock traded at $149.96 after hours at 4:22 p.m. ET, up 1.47%. After its first report in August, the stock fell 13.6% the next day.

The AI Segment Carried the Growth

The AI segment, which the company calls SI (Super Intelligence), booked $7.6B of revenue. In the second quarter the figure was $2.6B. The segment swung from a $1.3B operating loss in the second quarter to an operating profit of $431M.

The Connectivity segment, which houses Starlink, reported $5.25B of revenue and $2.37B of operating income. Subscribers rose to 13.6 million and monthly revenue per user to $69. The launch business brought in $1.77B.

Installed compute capacity rose from 1.4 gigawatts at the end of June to 1.7 gigawatts. A year earlier, that capacity stood at 0.6 gigawatts.

Part of the Profit Did Not Come From Operations

The headlines read this report as a profit story. The cash flow statement tells an investment story.

Start with the profit itself. Operating income was $2.79B. Net income was $4.40B, or $1.6B more than operating income.

Interest income exceeding interest expense is the return on cash raised in the IPO. As of September 30 the company held $51.3B in cash and $38.6B in marketable securities. The release does not break down other income.

The Profit Went Into Data Centers, Not the Bank

The gap between profit and cash comes from depreciation. Money paid for a data center today enters the income statement over years but leaves the cash flow statement now. More: Cash Flow.

The nine-month figures make the gap clearer. Cash from operations was $13.1B, while purchases of property and equipment were $48.1B. The difference is about $35B; the company does not report it as a line, and the arithmetic is ours.

At that pace, $35B over nine months works out to roughly $11.7B a quarter. The company's cash and securities total $89.9B, against total debt of $38.8B. Deutsche Bank says management targets more than 2 gigawatts by year-end and notes a 5-10 gigawatt range for the end of 2027.

Before the report, Morgan Stanley's Adam Jonas described financing as the stock's main problem. "Need for additional financing remains a key overhang for sentiment."

1.3 Billion Shares Unlock on Thursday

One tranche of the IPO lock-up is tied to earnings. On the second full trading day after the report, Thursday, October 22, 1.3 billion shares become eligible for sale. According to FXStreet, that is 28% of the locked pool and it carries no price condition.

Roughly 22% of the company's shares can trade today; that rises to 32% after Thursday. When the first 912 million shares unlocked in August, the stock rose 6% that day. More: IPOs.

The chart shows the August low near $108 and the recovery that followed. The Nasdaq 100 over the same period is shown below for comparison.

What It Means for Investors

• The market priced the revenue and profit beat at only about 1.5% after hours; the $19.6B of spending matched estimates, so it was no surprise.
• As SpaceX adds compute, demand holds up for chip, memory and power suppliers; the same spending sharpens the financing question for SpaceX stock.
• Thursday's 1.3 billion-share unlock will test whether the after-hours price level can absorb selling pressure.
• The risk to the thesis is capital spending continuing to outgrow compute revenue, pushing the company toward new debt or equity issuance.

Sources: Financial figures come from SpaceX's third-quarter release dated October 20, 2026. Analyst estimates and the after-hours price rely on Benzinga, Investing.com and Teslanorth. The lock-up schedule comes from FXStreet and The Motley Fool; the Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley notes are as reported by Yahoo Finance. The nine-month cash gap and quarterly average are Açılış Zili's calculations.