Starlink’s 12 Million Users Now Fund SpaceX’s AI Bill

By John Maximus · Published 14 October 2026
Reported from named sources and checked against the publishers linked in this article. Corrections: editorial and corrections policy.

SpaceX’s satellite broadband arm is now carrying the cost of an artificial-intelligence build-out that absorbed $15.83 billion of capital spending in a single quarter, according to a review of the company’s fiscal second-quarter 2026 results published by Yahoo Finance on 13 October. Separately, the investment site ainvest reported on 11 October that regulators have cleared a 15,000-satellite direct-to-device plan that pushes Starlink into the US mobile market.

Key facts

• Starlink had 12.0 million subscribers at the end of fiscal Q2 2026, up from 10.3 million at the end of Q1 and 6.0 million a year earlier, Yahoo Finance reports.
• Average revenue per user was $66 a month. Connectivity revenue reached $4.30 billion in the quarter: $2.49 billion from consumers and $1.81 billion from enterprise and government customers.
• Total revenue was $7.81 billion, against $4.07 billion a year earlier. The AI segment contributed $2.56 billion of that.
• Of $18.37 billion in capital spending in the quarter, $15.83 billion went to AI.
• The Federal Communications Commission approved SpaceX’s plan to launch 15,000 next-generation direct-to-device satellites, ainvest reports, waiving the requirement that satellite operators lease wireless spectrum from terrestrial carriers.

Why it matters

For anyone watching whether Starlink reaches their address and what it will cost there, the number that matters is not the subscriber count but the ratio between the group’s two halves. Connectivity billed $4.30 billion over the three months; AI capital spending consumed $15.83 billion over the same three months — roughly 3.7 times what the broadband business brought in. Yahoo Finance’s own shorthand is “two companies wearing one jersey”, and it identifies a stall in Starlink subscriber growth as the single development that would change the picture fastest.

Two consequences follow for customers. First, neither report breaks out subscribers, revenue or pricing by country, so the $66 monthly average is a global blend rather than a guide to any one market’s price list; those are set country by country on Starlink’s own order pages, which SpaceX revises without announcement and neither outlet examines. Second, availability is a function of capacity over a given area, and capacity is a function of launch cadence — which is why the capital-allocation split is worth watching rather than skipping. A group still losing money at the operating level, funding a data-centre programme several times the size of its broadband receipts, has two obvious levers: slow the hardware that lifts a congested region from waitlist to orderable, or raise the figure Yahoo Finance calls its cash engine. Rising average revenue per user, read from the customer’s side of the invoice, is a price increase.

The broadband numbers

Starlink is sold to households, airlines, ships and governments, Yahoo Finance notes, and the subscriber base doubled year on year. The outlet attributes the pace to SpaceX owning the rockets that carry its own satellites, letting it build out the network faster than competitors can.

Launch itself has become the smallest piece of the business. The Space segment brought in $962 million, and of 38 missions in the quarter, only 10 flew for paying customers — the rest of that cadence went to SpaceX’s own constellation.

Losses, cash and the AI bill

Profitability is improving but not here yet, Yahoo Finance says. The operating loss narrowed to $143 million from $970 million a year earlier and the net loss shrank to $541 million from $1.01 billion, while adjusted EBITDA rose to $3.54 billion from $1.21 billion. Yahoo Finance cautions that adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure excluding depreciation and interest, and that depreciation on new hardware is a real cost.

The company also reported $14.1 billion in contracted sales from new cloud services agreements. Yahoo Finance says contracts are not cash, and that the gap between spending and cash is the stock’s biggest open question.

How investors have reacted

SpaceX traded at 200 times forward earnings as of 9 October, against a sector price-to-earnings ratio of 12.29, according to Yahoo Finance. It reports that CNBC, the US business broadcaster, recorded a 13% share fall the day after the company’s first earnings report as a public company, with investors rattled by the surge in AI spending and by upcoming share unlocks — the dates when early holders become free to sell.

The mobile push behind the spending

ainvest reports that days after the FCC decision, SpaceX bought a nationwide 800 MHz spectrum portfolio from private investment firm Grain Management, in a deal the press prices near $8 billion, then announced Starlink Mobile would become a “major” US carrier. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon fell roughly 7% in after-hours trading.

That leaves SpaceX holding satellite and terrestrial spectrum at once — the first network operator to do so, ainvest says — and removes the need for a carrier’s permission to reach a phone. Evercore ISI analyst Kutgun Maral told the outlet that “the carriers’ best argument just got weaker.” The Grain transfer still needs final FCC approval.

The purchase sits on top of a roughly $20 billion deal last year for EchoStar’s airwaves, ainvest notes, alongside the 15,000-satellite constellation and a terrestrial build-out of towers and rooftops. Its argument is that a carrier carrying scarce capacity and heavy sunk costs needs both enough subscribers and enough pricing to service that capital — the same logic that applies to Starlink’s broadband tariffs.

On the incumbent side, AT&T has announced a $3 billion deal with glass and fibre maker Corning, and chief executive John Stankey has publicly dismissed the satellite plan as not a viable strategy. ainvest reports that AT&T’s dividend yield is near 6.4% and Verizon’s above 8%, and that defensive spending comes out of the same free cash flow that funds those payouts.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is Starlink Mobile expected to offer full 5G-quality service?

According to ainvest, SpaceX’s next-generation direct-to-device satellites are slated to begin flying in 2027, with full 5G-quality service expected in the first half of 2028. ainvest describes that timeline as uncertain.

How much spectrum would SpaceX hold compared with the big US carriers?

Evercore ISI analyst Kutgun Maral, quoted by ainvest, said SpaceX would end up with about 79 megahertz of low- and mid-band spectrum, against 280 to 380 megahertz held by each of AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. He characterised that as more of a coverage fix than a capacity solution.

What is Cursor, and how much is SpaceX paying for it?

Yahoo Finance reports that SpaceX agreed to buy Cursor, an AI coding company, in a $60 billion deal. Yahoo Finance frames the purchase as a bet on the AI software layer rather than only on AI hardware and infrastructure.

Are investors betting against SpaceX stock?

Not heavily, according to Yahoo Finance. Short interest stood at 2.43% of the float, which it calls a relatively limited level of bearish positioning, while 119 hedge funds held the stock in the most recent quarter, up from none in the prior one.