For the first time, Starlink is not SpaceX’s biggest earner. The satellite internet network’s revenue grew 69% in the third quarter of 2026, to $5.25 billion, but the company’s artificial-intelligence compute unit brought in $7.56 billion. SpaceX reported total revenue of roughly $14.6 billion on Tuesday, October 20, and a net profit of $4.4 billion, which Satellite News said reversed more than a year of operational deficits.
Key facts
- Total revenue was up 161% year over year, according to Crypto Briefing.
- The Super Intelligence segment’s $7.56 billion was an 830% rise and more than half of company revenue, Crypto Briefing reported.
- Net profit of $4.4 billion compares with a $1.1 billion loss a year earlier, 24/7 Wall St reported.
- Capital expenditure hit $19.6 billion for the quarter, nearly triple the year-earlier figure, Satellite News said.
What it means for Starlink subscribers
Crypto Briefing described Starlink as the service that “has long been the company’s financial engine,” and said its 69% growth now makes it a second engine instead — one whose demand does not rise and fall with the AI spending cycle. Satellite News attributed that growth to sustained global expansion and broader enterprise deployments, the category that covers new enterprise launches such as Paratus in Lesotho.
On the sources’ own accounting, the AI build is not being paid for by starving the satellite side. Satellite News said the fourth-quarter capital spending guidance funds Starship manufacturing lines and orbital hardware, including Starlink Gen3 satellites with onboard AI processing — so the same spending wave that is building data centres is also buying the satellites and launches that add broadband capacity. The bottlenecks all three reports describe are power, cooling and electrical equipment for compute sites, not dish supply, launch cadence or coverage. None of the reports records a Starlink price change, a subscriber total or a capacity limit on the broadband side.
Where the AI money comes from
The Super Intelligence unit bundles SpaceX’s AI businesses, including compute services, Grok and Cursor, according to Crypto Briefing. The multi-year compute contract behind much of the growth is with Anthropic, the AI developer, with other deals with hyperscalers — large cloud operators — adding to the base. Crypto Briefing flagged the concentration risk: one contract worth roughly $15 billion annualized, meaning the current rate projected across a full year, leaves a meaningful share of revenue resting on a single customer relationship holding steady.
Satellite News described the same business differently, as leasing dedicated compute capacity and space-bound processing resources to outside commercial developers, which it called an auxiliary high-margin channel alongside launch and communications.
24/7 Wall St reported the superintelligence division earned $431 million in operating income after $1.2 billion of stock compensation tied to Cursor, with a further $23 billion in Cursor awards to be expensed over about three years. It also noted Grokbot had 800,000 paid weekly users in early October.
The spending wave
Crypto Briefing put AI capital spending at between $15.83 billion and $16.44 billion across the second and third quarters, supporting nameplate compute capacity of 1.7 GW — “nameplate” being the maximum the installed hardware is rated for rather than what it draws in practice. Management guided fourth-quarter capital spending to between $35 billion and $40 billion, Satellite News reported. This site has covered the satellite half of that programme separately, as funding a far larger satellite build-out.
24/7 Wall St said SpaceX is aiming for 13 GW of computing by the end of 2027, up from that 1.7 GW. Musk said power, cooling and electrical equipment are the limits, and that SpaceX is building 20 GW of new power and cooling and casting its own turbine blades because suppliers say those parts run 12 to 18 months behind. Most of the 2027 plan depends on Vera Rubin systems — NVIDIA’s next-generation AI server platform — arriving on time, the outlet said.
Management told investors new compute installations pay for themselves in less than a year, with pricing a little above the high end of a $30 to $50 per watt range, per 24/7 Wall St. The outlet also reported a $63 billion backlog of signed work, and that Musk prefers short contracts near spot rates because he expects computing to be worth more per watt over time.
Balance sheet and targets
As of September 30, 2026, SpaceX held cash and marketable securities of approximately $89.9 billion against $38.8 billion in debt and finance leases, Crypto Briefing reported, describing the cash cushion as more than twice what the company owes.
On the earnings call, Musk said annual recurring revenue — the yearly value of contracts already in force — could be “somewhere between $500 billion and a trillion” by the end of 2027, according to 24/7 Wall St. Crypto Briefing noted SpaceX had targeted a $100 billion annualized revenue run-rate by late 2026, and that four times the third quarter falls well short of that target. For scale, it said SpaceX reported revenue of $18.7 billion for all of 2025.
Why the outlets’ figures differ
On profit, 24/7 Wall St noted that net income of $4.4 billion came in above operating income of $2.8 billion — an unusual order, which means items below the operating line, such as investment gains and tax effects, added to the bottom line rather than subtracting from it. The $2.8 billion is the closer read on the operating business.
On the share price, the two outlets are timing different sessions. Satellite News, writing from results week, gave a Tuesday close of $147.79 and a 2.2% gain in after-hours trading; 24/7 Wall St, publishing two days later, reported shares up 7.79% at $159.31. That sequence explains the direction but not the whole gap — 2.2% on the Tuesday close lands near $151 — and neither report accounts for the remaining move.
Launch side and a possible Tesla deal
Musk tied long-term financial health to reusability, telling investors: “The only way that we can extend consciousness beyond Earth on a sustained basis is with a fully reusable orbital launch vehicle,” Satellite News reported. The outlet said the next Starship test flight is planned for November, with SpaceX attempting to catch both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage on the launch tower arms at Starbase, Texas. 24/7 Wall St said weekly Starship flights are targeted for the first half of 2027.
On a possible combination with Tesla, the carmaker Musk also leads, 24/7 Wall St reported that a deal needs 50% of all outstanding Tesla shares and that Musk has stepped back from talks over a conflict, saying he was “tap dancing through a minefield.”
What the reports do not cover
None of the three reports breaks Starlink’s $5.25 billion down by country or region, and none mentions licensing or regulatory approvals in Africa. Satellite News gave no market-level figures behind its description of broader enterprise deployments.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did SpaceX beat Wall Street expectations for the quarter?
Yes. Satellite News reported third-quarter net income of $0.35 per share, which exceeded Wall Street projections. 24/7 Wall St put adjusted EBITDA — earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, a rough measure of cash earnings — at $8.8 billion.
How much is SpaceX worth on the stock market?
24/7 Wall St put SpaceX’s market value at about $2.10 trillion after the report, and said that price already assumes much of the 13 GW compute build will happen. The outlet noted SpaceX filed its S-1 on May 20, 2026 and began trading after a June market debut.
What profit margin does the Starlink side of the business earn?
24/7 Wall St reported that SpaceX’s Connectivity segment — the satellite internet and communications business — had a 55% gross margin in the quarter. It said that figure included a one-time lift of about 3%, mostly from tariff refunds.
Is SpaceX borrowing money to pay for the compute expansion?
Yes. 24/7 Wall St reported that SpaceX’s first bond sale raised $25 billion, and warned that debt adds fixed costs against revenue sold on short contracts. The same report said paying in stock dilutes holders directly, pointing to the billions in replacement equity awards attached to the $60 billion Cursor deal.
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