Key Points
- SpaceX said third-quarter revenue rose 161% to $14.6 billion and it earned $4.4 billion, or 35 cents a diluted share, after a $1.1 billion loss a year earlier.
- Its Super Intelligence segment, which includes AI compute and Grok, brought in $7.56 billion and passed Starlink’s Connectivity unit as the largest.
- Starlink ended September with 13.6 million consumer subscribers, up from 7.2 million a year earlier.
- Elon Musk said SpaceX and Tesla have each formed special committees of independent directors to study a merger, but no terms are agreed.
- Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen guided first-quarter 2027 revenue of $33 billion to $37 billion on the call.
SpaceX earnings for the third quarter showed revenue nearly tripling to $14.6 billion and a swing to a $4.4 billion profit, the rocket, Starlink and AI company said Tuesday.
On the call that followed, CEO Elon Musk confirmed that SpaceX and Tesla have both set up special committees to study combining the companies, while warning that a deal is far from certain.
What happened
SpaceX (Nasdaq: SPCX) furnished its results for the quarter ended Sept. 30 to the Securities and Exchange Commission after the market closed Tuesday, Oct. 20, in an earnings release filed with its Form 8-K. It was its second quarterly report since its June IPO.
Third-quarter results at a glance
| Measure | Q3 2026 | Q3 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Total revenue | $14.58 billion | $5.58 billion |
| Super Intelligence revenue | $7.56 billion | $813 million |
| Connectivity (Starlink) revenue | $5.25 billion | $3.10 billion |
| Space (launch) revenue | $1.77 billion | $1.67 billion |
| Income (loss) from operations | $2.79 billion | ($273 million) |
| Net income (loss) | $4.40 billion | ($1.05 billion) |
| Diluted earnings per share | $0.35 | ($0.36) |
| Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP) | $8.81 billion | $2.17 billion |
Source: SpaceX Exhibit 99.1, Oct. 20, 2026.
The Super Intelligence segment, which SpaceX previously reported as AI, grew 830% from a year earlier. SpaceX credited new cloud services deals, wider Grok adoption and its Aug. 14 acquisition of coding startup Cursor, which added $608 million of revenue through September. The segment earned $431 million from operations after $1.2 billion of Cursor-related stock compensation.
Connectivity revenue rose 69%, and that unit’s operating income nearly doubled to $2.37 billion. Average consumer revenue per user was $69 a month, up 5% from the second quarter but below $83 a year earlier. Space revenue rose 6% on 35 launches, 12 of them for customers.
Net income topped operating income thanks to $873 million of interest income, $1.03 billion of other income and a $390 million tax benefit. For the first nine months, SpaceX still shows a net loss of $413 million.
Latest development
The merger news came in answer to an analyst. “Both SpaceX and Tesla have formed special committees to discuss this idea at the request of shareholders,” Musk said on the call, according to a transcript published by The Motley Fool. He said the committees are made up of independent directors and that “because I’m a conflicted party, I can’t actually be in the discussions.”
What is confirmed
- Both boards have formed committees of independent directors to consider a combination, Musk said.
- Musk, the CEO of both companies and their largest individual shareholder, is excluded from those talks, TechCrunch reported.
- Musk said he supports the idea: “I think it would be a good idea, but it’s really up to the special committees of both companies.”
What remains uncertain
- “The special committees have not reached agreement on the terms of any transaction. And obviously, there’s no guarantee that they will,” Musk said.
- Any deal would go to shareholders. On the Tesla side, Musk said, it would need “a 50% vote of all shares, not just those who vote,” which he called “quite a high hurdle.”
Tesla’s seven independent directors include board chair Robyn Denholm, TechCrunch reported.
Why it matters
SpaceX is now as much an AI infrastructure company as a rocket maker. Its nameplate computing capacity reached 1.7 gigawatts at Sept. 30, up from 0.6 gigawatts a year earlier, and capital spending hit $19.6 billion in the quarter, $16.4 billion of it in the Super Intelligence segment. That puts it in the same race for computing power as chipmakers such as TSMC, which posted a record quarterly profit last week.
Musk said the two companies could cooperate on AI software, chip design, robotics and connectivity. For Tesla investors, the voting threshold he described means a deal would need broad support, not just a majority of votes cast.
What happens next
Johnsen said on the call that SpaceX had a $63 billion backlog at Sept. 30, with about $42 billion expected to be recognized within a year. He said the company remains on track for $100 billion in annualized revenue by the end of 2026, based on December, and expects fourth-quarter capital spending of $35 billion to $40 billion.
Musk went further, putting annual recurring revenue at “somewhere between $500 billion and $1 trillion” by the end of 2027, a personal projection rather than formal guidance.
Musk said Starship Flight 15, planned for next month, will try to catch both the booster and the ship. Flight 14, Starship’s first orbital flight, delivered 26 Starlink V3 satellites.
SpaceX expects its Oct. 8 deal for 800 MHz spectrum licenses for Starlink Mobile to close in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval. Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting is set for Dec. 3, and no merger proposal appears on its agenda, Benzinga reported. A webcast replay and transcript are due on SpaceX’s investor relations site.
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Sources
- SpaceX Q3 2026 results, Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K (SEC, Oct. 20, 2026)
- The Motley Fool: SpaceX Q3 2026 earnings call transcript (Oct. 20, 2026)
- TechCrunch: SpaceX and Tesla boards form merger committees (Oct. 20, 2026)
- The Guardian: SpaceX earnings and Tesla merger report (Oct. 20, 2026)
- Benzinga via Yahoo Finance: SpaceX, Tesla merger committees (Oct. 20, 2026)
