SpaceX Spent $19.6bn of Capex in a $4.4bn Profit Quarter

SpaceX booked more revenue from selling artificial intelligence than from satellite broadband in the three months to 30 September 2026, and spent more on building the compute than the compute earned. Revenue reached $14,575 million, up 161 per cent from $5,576 million a year earlier, and net income was $4,404 million against a loss of $1,054 million in the same quarter of 2025, according to the results the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on 20 October 2026. Capital expenditure in the quarter was $19,593 million, more than the revenue it reported.

The segment the company now calls Super Intelligence, renamed in this release from Artificial Intelligence, produced revenue of $7,560 million, ahead of Connectivity's $5,248 million and Space's $1,767 million. Its capital spending was $16,444 million for the quarter and $39,995 million for the nine months. Nameplate compute reached 1.7 gigawatts at 30 September, from 1.4 GW three months earlier and 0.6 GW a year earlier, as the COLOSSUS II buildout continued.

The profit is not the operating story the headline number suggests. Income from operations was $2,791 million. Below that line sat interest income of $873 million, other income of $1,025 million (including $561 million from a related party) and a benefit from income taxes of $390 million, against interest expense of $675 million. Strip those out and the quarter is profitable but less dramatically so, and the nine-month position is still a net loss of $413 million. The honest reading is that SpaceX reached profitability on the back of a very large cash pile and a tax credit as much as on operations.

What Starlink subscribers are paying for

Connectivity is the part that behaves like a business. Income from operations there rose 99 per cent year on year to $2,367 million, which is more than the group's entire operating income, on revenue up 69 per cent. Starlink ended September with 13.6 million consumer subscribers, 1.6 million more than in June, and monthly consumer ARPU of $69, up 5 per cent sequentially but well below the $83 of a year earlier as growth moved into cheaper markets. Enterprise and government revenue grew 91 per cent to $2,127 million, with Starlink active on more than 3,800 aircraft.

The Cursor line in the accounts

SpaceX completed its acquisition of Cursor on 14 August 2026 at an implied equity value of $60 billion. The GAAP purchase consideration was $42.5 billion, with a further $23.4 billion of equity awards attributed to post-acquisition service and subject to forfeiture. Cursor contributed $608 million of revenue between closing and 30 September, and $1.2 billion of share-based compensation from the deal sat inside the SI segment's $431 million of operating income for the quarter. Goodwill on the balance sheet rose to $48,423 million from $11,809 million at the end of 2025.

The balance sheet carries the spending comfortably for now: $51,294 million of cash and $38,561 million of marketable securities at 30 September, against $36,146 million of long-term debt and finance leases, of which $10,716 million is owed to a related party. Total assets were $254,045 million, up from $92,079 million at the end of December.

Two definitional changes matter for anyone tracking the series. The AI segment became Super Intelligence, and the satellites in orbit count now includes de-orbit approved satellites, which adds roughly 400 to the third-quarter figure with no effect on the financials. Neither change is hidden, both are in the notes, and both make comparisons with earlier quarters slightly less straightforward than they look.

The case against reading the quarter as froth is Connectivity, where operating income nearly doubled on a subscription base that keeps growing. The case for caution is arithmetic. Over the nine months to 30 September, SpaceX spent $48,069 million of capital against $27,083 million of revenue.