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.
SpaceX's data centers and artificial intelligence-related ventures have outperformed investor expectations in the second quarter of the year, marking a shift from the company's origins in space exploration. As a result of this pivot to AI, the company now accounts for 52% of its income. In its regulatory filing, SpaceX revealed $14.6 billion in earnings for the third quarter, driven by growth across all segments.
However, this growth was particularly pronounced in its "Super Intelligence" business line, which includes the recently-acquired Cursor coding tool, Grok bot, and the burgeoning neocloud business. The neocloud business now boasts 1.7 GW of compute capacity, significantly boosting the company's revenue.
The increase in revenue was further augmented by about $1 billion in income related to the recovery of bitcoin prices and unspecified income related to a SpaceX investment in another company. However, these impressive numbers were balanced against significant capital expenditures of $19.6 billion, as SpaceX continues to build out its Colossus II data center and increase investment in Starship, the heavy lift rocket essential to deploying new Starlink satellites and developing orbital data centers.
CEO Elon Musk, who spends four days a week working on Colossus II in Memphis, Tennessee, emphasized that the main constraint on deploying "super intelligence" lies in power and cooling infrastructure rather than chips. He tasked SpaceX engineers to solve this issue, comparing the deployment of power and cooling infrastructure to a New York Yankees team playing in Little League – a daunting task but ultimately achievable.
Despite these substantial capital expenditures, SpaceX managed to return to profitability, reporting a net income of $4.4 billion, a stark contrast to the $1 billion loss in the same quarter last year.
However, the company still lags in profitability for the year, having reported a $413 million net loss in the first nine months. CEO Elon Musk remains optimistic about the company's Superintelligence business segment, projecting that SpaceX's annual recurring revenue by the end of 2027 will be "somewhere between $500 billion and $1 trillion." This story is ongoing, and TechCrunch will provide updates.
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