SpaceX posts $7.5 billion in AI revenue and $431 million in segment profit

SpaceX’s AI business generated $7.5 billion in third-quarter revenue, more than half the company’s $14.6 billion total, and delivered $431 million in profit. The October 20 results, covered by TechCrunch, put AI at the center of the company’s sales—but also showed capital spending running well ahead of total quarterly revenue.

Software and computing capacity share one segment

The renamed “Super Intelligence” business combines the recently acquired Cursor coding tool, Grok and SpaceX’s AI-focused cloud operation. It reported 1.7 gigawatts of computing capacity, putting infrastructure alongside software in the earnings picture.

The AI segment’s profit included a substantial acquisition-related charge: $1.2 billion in one-time stock-based compensation expenses tied to Cursor. Those expenses reduced the reported $431 million profit. The distinction matters when reading the result: the segment remained profitable after that charge, rather than presenting a profit figure that excluded it.

Company-wide, SpaceX returned to quarterly profitability, recording $4.4 billion in net income against a $1 billion loss a year earlier. That is a separate measure from the AI segment’s profit. The recovery also did not erase the year’s earlier losses: SpaceX still recorded a $413 million net loss for the first nine months.

Power and cooling drive the next buildout

During the results discussion, CEO Elon Musk said he was spending four days a week in Memphis, Tennessee, working to bring Colossus II online. He argued that power, cooling and infrastructure were becoming bigger constraints on AI deployment than chips, and said he had assigned SpaceX engineers to address those problems.

CFO Bret Johnsen’s fourth-quarter forecast points to a further increase, rather than a pause after the third-quarter buildout. He said SpaceX would spend $35 billion to $40 billion on new capital investments. That forecast concerns spending on assets and infrastructure; it is not a forecast of an equivalent quarterly loss.

Two very different revenue forecasts

Executives paired those investment plans with forecasts of much higher revenue. Their projections use different measures and time periods, so they should not be read as interchangeable targets. Johnsen gave a total-revenue range for one quarter; Musk described an annual recurring revenue level he expects SpaceX to reach by the end of 2027.

• First-quarter 2027 sales: Johnsen forecast total SpaceX revenue of $33 billion to $37 billion.
• End-of-2027 recurring revenue: Musk predicted an annual recurring revenue level between $500 billion and $1 trillion.