SpaceX posted a 92% year-on-year revenue surge in its first quarterly earnings report since listing on public markets, comfortably beating Wall Street expectations — yet shares fell as investors focused on a dramatic acceleration in capital expenditure and the looming expiry of post-IPO lock-up restrictions.
The rocket manufacturer led by Elon Musk generated $7.8 billion in revenue in the second quarter, up from $4.1 billion in the same period a year earlier, well above the analyst consensus of $6.81 billion compiled by Bloomberg. The net loss for the quarter narrowed sharply to $541 million, a marked improvement on the $4.3 billion loss recorded in the first quarter of the year.
For the first time, SpaceX formally broke out its revenue into three segments in its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Starlink, the satellite internet service, generated $4.291 billion in the quarter — approximately 55% of total company revenue — representing 66% year-on-year growth. The Artificial Intelligence division billed $2.561 billion, or roughly 33% of the total, after expanding 247% on a year-on-year basis. Rocket launches and the traditional space business — the company’s original activity — accounted for just 12% of revenue, making it the group’s smallest segment.
SpaceX’s president told analysts that Starlink’s growth was driven by consumer, government and enterprise customers, highlighting recent partnerships with major airlines. The company said Starlink now has 12 million subscribers, double the figure recorded a year ago.
Speaking at a conference with analysts and investors, Musk argued that the market appears to be ‘underestimating’ SpaceX, pointing to Starlink as the only segment currently generating a profit. ‘In its early years, Starlink offered only intermittent connectivity, but today it has incredible uptime and low latency,’ the billionaire said, adding that a growing number of offices and agencies can treat Starlink as a primary internet access provider rather than a backup alternative.
Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen told analysts the company is on track to reach $100 billion in annualised recurring revenue by year-end — a target that, he noted, already assumes a contribution from the recent acquisition of Cursor, an AI-assisted programming tools company.
Despite the strong revenue performance, investors expressed concern about the pace of spending. SpaceX’s capital expenditure increased more than six-fold year-on-year to $18.37 billion in the quarter, with $15.83 billion of that directed at Artificial Intelligence. The figure exceeded the analyst consensus estimate of $13.22 billion and arrives at a moment when investors have been scrutinising AI-related costs across the technology sector following similar disclosures recently from Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon.
Funded by proceeds from its landmark initial public offering (IPO), the company now holds $93.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents, up from $24.7 billion at the end of the first quarter. Offsetting that, the company’s debt and financial lease obligations have risen to $36.8 billion, from $22 billion three months earlier.
Even so, SpaceX shares oscillated after an initial rise on Tuesday, at one point falling nearly 9% in after-market trading. Analysts cited as a likely factor investor positioning ahead of the expiry of the post-IPO lock-up period on Thursday, which will allow early investors and employees to sell up to 912 million shares.
According to Semafor journalist Liz Hoffman, in a piece published Tuesday, bearish investors should be cautious about overestimating how many of those locked-up shares will actually reach the market — a miscalculation that could force a scramble to cover short positions, a dynamic known as a short squeeze.
SpaceX made its stock market debut in June in what was the largest initial public offering in history, valuing the company at approximately $1.75 trillion. Since then, however, its shares have shed roughly $1 trillion in market value and are trading below the IPO price, reflecting investor uncertainty about the company’s rate of spending and the long-term profitability of its AI ambitions.
That tension — between robust top-line growth and the capital intensity of SpaceX’s AI bet — was not fully resolved by the first quarterly report as a listed company, even as the headline revenue figures underscored how dramatically the business has shifted away from its rocket-launch origins.
The Starlink and AI divisions now collectively account for nearly 90% of SpaceX’s revenue, a structural shift that positions the company less as a space launch provider and increasingly as a broadband and artificial intelligence infrastructure group — a repositioning the market is still working to price.
Source: Mercado / Original article: https://mercado.co.ao/primeiro-trimestre-da-spacex-em-bolsa-receita-recorde-accoes-em-queda/
