A widely syndicated investment column published on 12 November 2026 argues that neither Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service, nor Starship will be what lifts the company’s share price before 2027 — and that its artificial intelligence arm will. The piece, written by Keithen Drury for The Motley Fool, was carried the same day by AOL and Yahoo Finance under the headline “Not Starlink. Not Starship. This Is the Real Reason SpaceX Stock Could Soar Before 2027 Arrives.”
Key facts
- Space Exploration Technologies trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX, according to the column.
- The stock spiked above $200 per share at its public market debut, then fell to nearly $100, and now trades around $140 — slightly below the price investors first paid on IPO day.
- SpaceX acquired xAI shortly before going public; the AI division’s official name is Super Intelligence, or SI. Its revenue grew 830% year over year to $7.56 billion.
- SpaceX generated $14.6 billion in total revenue in the third quarter, meaning the AI unit now accounts for more than half of company revenue, the column says.
- CEO Elon Musk believes the AI business could reach annual recurring revenue of between $500 billion and $1 trillion by the end of 2027.
- Both versions refer to the rocket programme as “Starship Technologies,” calling it cool but not a stock driver. The two texts are otherwise near-identical, as is normal for a syndicated column, differing only in the promotional panel each outlet inserts.
What it means for Starlink watchers
The column’s significance for a satellite internet audience is where it puts Starlink: off to one side. Drury acknowledges that Starlink drew the headlines for being profitable and growing quickly, but that single line is the only Starlink content in the piece — there are no subscriber numbers, no tariffs, no hardware or licensing detail, and no mention of Africa, Zimbabwe or any other specific market. On the revenue split he describes, he writes that “you could make the case that this is really an AI company with space aspirations,” while adding that this is not the direction the company is heading over the long term.
The column makes no claim about how SpaceX allocates capital, and that is the open question for anyone waiting on a rollout date: whether a company whose growth story has moved to AI keeps funding launch cadence, gateway construction and national licensing work at the same rate, since those are the inputs that set availability and pricing in new markets. Starlink News has separately reported Starlink revenue per user falling to $69, and ARK ranked Starlink third in its Tesla-SpaceX merger math — the same demotion arrived at by a different route. The clearest point where the two sides of the business visibly meet is operational rather than financial: Grok now answers 20,000 Starlink support calls a day.
The AI case, and the hedge
Drury’s reading is that Musk sees large potential in AI and is pivoting the company there in the short term, to build a bigger business that can help fund space exploration when the time is right. He describes revenue as having exploded as clients adopt AI models and agents for a growing number of tasks, and argues full-scale adoption is still only at a starting point.
He does not present that as a certainty. The debate, he writes, is not over how fast the AI business is growing but over how much companies should be spending — and with the market bearish on several AI firms for that reason, he says the market’s answer is clear: they are spending too much right now. If the sentiment persists through the end of 2026 and across 2027, the column says, SPCX could struggle; if it flips, Drury argues SpaceX is one of the best ways to invest in the AI build-out, and he expects the flip soon, possibly producing a rally by the end of the year.
Checking the numbers
Neither version of the column links to a primary source for the figures it cites. Starlink News found no SpaceX earnings release, investor presentation or regulatory filing attached to either the AOL or Yahoo Finance text, and no accompanying report name or filing date that would let a reader look one up; both the $14.6 billion quarterly total and the $7.56 billion AI figure therefore rest on the column’s own attribution. The primary record, if it exists, would be SpaceX’s own quarterly disclosure as a newly listed Nasdaq company, filed under the SPCX ticker. Treat the piece as what it is: an opinion column, not a company announcement, with nothing in it presented as new guidance from SpaceX.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does SpaceX’s AI division actually contain?
According to the column, SpaceX acquired xAI shortly before going public. xAI runs its own AI lab, which builds the Grok family of large language models, and it also owns X, formerly Twitter, which the column describes as a minor subset of the business.
Who wrote the piece, and does the author own SpaceX stock?
The author is Keithen Drury, writing for The Motley Fool. The disclosure attached to both the AOL and Yahoo Finance versions states that Drury has no position in any of the stocks mentioned, while The Motley Fool itself has positions in and recommends Space Exploration Technologies and has a disclosure policy. Yahoo Finance also notes the piece was originally published by The Motley Fool.
Is SpaceX on The Motley Fool’s list of best stocks to buy now?
No. The promotional note at the foot of both versions says the Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team recently identified what it believes are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now, and that Space Exploration Technologies was not one of them.
How much weight does the column put on Musk’s own revenue forecast?
Drury flags it as unreliable in detail but useful in direction. He writes that anyone who has followed Musk’s projections knows he sets massive long-term targets that are rarely reached, but adds that Musk is normally right about where an industry is heading, so the $500 billion to $1 trillion figure may not be out of the question.
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