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(Sharecast News) - Elon Musk's SpaceX posted strongerthanexpected secondquarter results after the close on Tuesday in its first earnings release as a public company, offering a rare look under the hood at a business whose shares have been sliding sharply in recent weeks.
SpaceX pulled in revenues of $7.8bn in H1, comfortably ahead of consensus estimates of $6.81bn and a substantial step up from the $4.7bn booked in the first quarter. Adjusted underlying earnings also beat expectations, coming in at $3.5bn versus guidance for $2bn, underscoring the strength of the firm's core launch and connectivity operations.
Its AI division, on the other hand, remained a heavy drag, with the segment posting an operating loss of $1.26bn, narrower than anticipated, but AI spending ballooned to $15.8bn, more than double Q1's $7.7bn. The surge in investment has fuelled concerns that SpaceX - like other frontierAI players - may struggle to generate adequate returns on the vast infrastructure required to support its ambitions.
Capital expenditure totalled $18.37bn for the quarter, slightly below estimates, with spending tied to both AI buildout and the group's satellite and launch programmes. Starlink continued to scale rapidly, as subscribers topped 12m at quarterend, with the connectivity arm delivering $2.6bn in adjusted EBITDA, ahead of the $2.41bn expected by analysts.
SpaceX also unveiled a new partnership with Nvidia to design its Starmind AI1 payload, aimed at bringing "datacenterclass compute" into orbit using Rubin GPUs and Vera CPUs. The collaboration was expected to lift peak satellite computing capacity to 250kW. Elon Musk also said Nvidia will serve as SpaceX's exclusive supplier of AI chips going forward.
The Texas-based company added that ongoing investment in Starlink and the next phase of its launch business will remain key components of its capitalspending profile through the remainder of the year.
Looking ahead, Musk struck an upbeat tone on SpaceX's outlook, saying the firm had brought forward its internal target for reaching $1trn in annual revenues by a full year to 2030, with what he described as a "nonzero chance" of hitting the milestone in 2029.
As of 1030 BST, SpaceX shares were down 7.56% in pre-market trading at $115.98 each.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com
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