SpaceX Beats Q3 Estimates as Revenue Surges 161% to $14.57B on Starlink and AI
SpaceX ($SPCX) beat Q3 earnings and revenue expectations, reporting EPS of $0.35 versus $0.13 expected and revenue up 161% to $14.57 billion, driven by Starlink growth and a surge in its Super Intelligence business.
SpaceX (SPCX) reported third-quarter earnings of $0.35 a share, $0.22 above the $0.13 FactSet consensus, and revenue that rose 161% from a year earlier to $14.57 billion, above the $12.87 billion consensus. More than half of the revenue came from the company's Super Intelligence (SI) business, which grew 830% year over year as new cloud services agreements, the acquisition of Cursor and wider adoption of Grok took hold. Starlink-driven Connectivity revenue rose 69% to $5.2 billion.
Results versus expectations
| Measure | Q3 2026 | Consensus | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| EPS | $0.35 | $0.13 | Beat by $0.22 |
| Revenue | $14.57B | $12.87B | Beat |
The revenue beat was about 13%, by our calculation. Revenue also nearly doubled from the second quarter, when it was $7.81 billion, an increase of about 86%. Consensus numbers varied by provider: another survey ahead of the report had expected EPS of about $0.15 and revenue of about $12.7 billion, so the beat is large on any of them. In the second quarter SpaceX reported a loss of $0.09 a share, so the $0.35 profit marks a swing to earnings.
Revenue by segment
| Segment | Q3 revenue | vs. Q2 | vs. Q3 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connectivity (Starlink) | $5.2B | +22% | +69% |
| Space (launch) | $1.8B | +84% | +6% |
| Super Intelligence (SI) | $7.6B | +195% | +830% |
| Total | $14.57B | +86% | +161% |
SI is now the largest part of the business. At $7.6 billion it was about 52% of total revenue, by our calculation, and the $7.6 billion of SI revenue is more than the Connectivity and Space segments' combined $7.0 billion in the quarter. The company said the SI growth came mainly from the activation of new cloud services agreements, the Cursor acquisition and increased Grok adoption among enterprise customers and consumers.
Connectivity: Starlink keeps growing
Connectivity revenue was $5.2 billion, up 22% from the second quarter and 69% from a year earlier. Consumer revenue rose 26% from the second quarter and 57% from a year earlier. Enterprise and government revenue rose 18% sequentially and 91% year over year. Starlink consumer monthly average revenue per user improved 5% from the second quarter to $69.
Space: 12 customer launches
Space revenue was $1.8 billion, up 84% from the second quarter but only 6% from a year earlier. SpaceX completed 12 customer launches in the quarter, including NASA's mission to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
Super Intelligence: compute buildout
| Nameplate compute capacity | Gigawatts |
|---|---|
| September 30, 2025 | 0.6 GW |
| June 30, 2026 | 1.4 GW |
| September 30, 2026 | 1.7 GW |
SpaceX expanded its nameplate compute to 1.7 gigawatts as it continued building COLOSSUS II, up from 1.4 GW at the end of June and 0.6 GW a year earlier. Before the report, Deutsche Bank analyst Edison Yu wrote that management is targeting more than 2 GW exiting the fourth quarter, so another step up is needed by year-end. For related coverage of the AI compute race, see our reports on Amazon's TorchNeuron and the Akamai and Anthropic cloud deal.
Capital spending
Total capital expenditure was $19.593 billion in the quarter, up from $6.880 billion a year earlier. That is also about 7% above the roughly $18.4 billion reported for the second quarter and equal to about 134% of the quarter's revenue, by our calculation. Yahoo Finance's live coverage said capital spending came in below what analysts expected, though we could not confirm the expectation figure. In a statement, the company said it is building infrastructure “with discipline,” focused on capital efficiency, strong returns on invested capital and a robust, investment-grade balance sheet. Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas had flagged the need for additional financing as a sentiment overhang ahead of the report.
Sources: SpaceX investor relations, Yahoo Finance, 24/7 Wall St.
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