New York (CNN) — SpaceX first earnings report as a public company blew past expectations. But it continued to burn through cash in pursuit of CEO Elon Musk’s vision for an AI-powered, Mars-colonizing future, putting investors on edge and sending SpaceX shares down in late trading.
The newly public satellite, space and AI behemoth brought in $7.8 billion in revenue in the April-June quarter, which SpaceX said was up 92% from the same period in 2025. But the company remained unprofitable, losing $541 million in the second quarter, following a $4.3 billion loss in the first three months of the year.
The results were well above the consensus analyst forecast of $6.8 billion in revenue and a net loss of $1.9 billion.
SpaceX shares tumbled more than 8% in late trading, partly because of the eye-popping figures the company spent on its unprofitable AI segment.
“The stock’s negative reaction is less a rejection of the fundamentals than a reflection of the enormous price of growth,” Luke Lango, technology analyst and publisher of Innovation Investor, said in a note. “Investors are demanding clearer evidence that its extraordinary growth can ultimately generate returns commensurate with its extraordinary spending and valuation.”
After shelling out more than $10 billion on capital expenditures – most of it on AI infrastructure — in the first three months of the year, SpaceX diverted another $18.4 billion in the second quarter. That was much higher than the $13 billion analysts had forecast.
Capex has become one of the most closely watched financial metrics as tech companies race to outspend one another on AI. SpaceX, taking on competitors like OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, devoted nearly $16 billion of its second-quarter capex to its xAI business. Analysts expect the company to top $45 billion in capex for the year.
SpaceX said AI revenues grew 247% year-over-year. Revenues for its only profitable business segment, the satellite-based internet service Starlink, jumped 66%.
The slump in shares after the report may be “less about the earnings and more about what’s coming in the next few days,” when a lockup period for company insiders expires, said Will Rhind, CEO of investment firm GraniteShares, in a note. Starting Thursday, early investors and some employees who held the stock pre-IPO will have a chance to sell their shares, which could push the price lower.
In a call with analysts Tuesday evening, SpaceX executives offered the kind of bullish, at times hyperbolic, forecasts that Musk is known for.
“Our internal projections for reaching a trillion dollars in revenue…have moved up from 2031 to 2030,” Musk said. “And there’s a non-zero chance of that being in 2029.”
That’s far more optimistic than most analysts are, however. FactSet estimates put SpaceX’s revenue for 2029 at about $207 billion.
This story has been updated with additional information.
–CNN’s John Towfighi contributed to this report.
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