SpaceX reported its first earnings as a public company on Tuesday, posting $7.8 billion in Q2 revenue and beating Wall Street's forecast. The AI unit's loss came in far narrower than analysts expected, but the stock still heads into Thursday's lock-up expiry down from its IPO price.
SpaceX posted $7.8 billion in Q2 revenue on Tuesday, up 92% year on year and above the $6.81 billion analysts had forecast, in its first earnings report since going public in June. Revenue climbed from $4.1 billion a year earlier, and the company's AI segment — which includes xAI, Grok, X and an expanding data-center business — posted an operating loss of $1.26 billion, well inside the $2.39 billion loss Wall Street had modeled.
Beats stretch across the balance sheet
Adjusted EBITDA reached $3.5 billion against a $2 billion estimate, while capex of $18.37 billion landed just below the $18.58 billion forecast. Overall operating loss for the quarter came to $1.3 billion, and the company's backlog stood at $47.5 billion at quarter's end.
Those results build on a business that generated $18.7 billion in revenue for all of 2025, meaning the Q2 print alone produced nearly 42% of last year's total. Revenue also climbed roughly 66% from $4.7 billion in the prior quarter.
Starlink funds growth, AI narrows its losses
Starlink remains SpaceX's primary revenue engine, though average revenue per user has declined as the company expands into lower-priced international markets. The AI unit is generating revenue from compute contracts with Anthropic, Alphabet's Google and Reflection AI, and SpaceX confirmed a new partnership with Nvidia to supply chips for its Starmind AI1 orbital compute satellites. Separately, AI revenue hit $818 million in Q1 2026 alone, and the company has projected that data-center deals could eventually yield $28 billion annually.
Losses narrow but the stock lags
SpaceX posted a net loss of $4.9 billion for all of 2025, followed by a $4.3 billion loss in Q1 2026. The expected Q2 loss sits around $1.9 billion, a trend that may be bending in the company's favor. Shares have fallen 8% since SpaceX's IPO in June, which valued the company at roughly $1.75 trillion, and face a further test Thursday when the post-IPO lock-up period expires, potentially freeing a wave of insider shares onto the market.
Starship, the company's next-generation reusable rocket, has yet to enter commercial service but remains central to plans for higher-bandwidth Starlink satellites and orbital AI infrastructure. Investors are also watching for comment from Musk on a possible merger between SpaceX and Tesla. Musk has dismissed the report without fully ruling out a deal.
Sources: Investing.com Live, Crypto Briefing
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