SpaceX swings to a $4.40 billion profit as a.I. and Starlink grow
SpaceX earned an overall profit of $4.40 billion in its latest quarter.
The short version
- The aerospace giant turned around from a loss of $1.05 billion last year.
- Revenue jumped 161 percent over three months ending in September.
- The surge was driven by Starlink satellite internet and artificial intelligence.
Why it matters to you. For business owners watching the tech sector, the massive cash flow from satellite internet and artificial intelligence shows these capital-heavy infrastructure plays are finally paying off.
Check your brokerage account if you hold private shares, because SpaceX just crossed a massive financial milestone. Elon Musk, the chief executive officer of Tesla, saw his aerospace giant SpaceX post an overall profit of $4.40 billion in its most recent quarter, according to an earnings release issued on Tuesday by ABC News.
That figure marks a sharp turnaround from a loss of $1.05 billion in the same three-month period a year earlier. The company also recorded a loss in the previous quarter ending in June, meaning the latest report marks a true turn into profitability.
Starlink, a satellite internet service, and artificial intelligence businesses drove the surge, with connectivity revenue rising 69 percent to $5.20 billion. SpaceX has spent heavily on data centers for artificial intelligence, and its AI unit registered $431 million in income from operations after a previous loss.
Shares of SpaceX jumped nearly 4 percent in after-hours trading, putting the price at about $153.30 and giving the company a valuation of nearly $1.95 trillion. Meanwhile, Paul Golding, a senior digital infrastructure and payments analyst at Macquarie, noted that Starlink recently acquired nationwide low-band spectrum to compete with mobile carriers.
The earnings arrive just after Musk vowed to give a share of SpaceX stock to every child in the United States, a pledge that could total nearly $11 billion based on current share prices.
If you are tracking where tech giants are putting their money, satellite connectivity and artificial intelligence data centers are where the real growth is happening.
