SpaceX says its capex could double this quarter as AI spending grows

SpaceX's second-ever earnings report revealed it's spending additional than always on AI — and that could shortly double.

SpaceX reported spending $16.4 milliard on AI-related capex in the third quarter, continuing the acceleration of AI spending seen in latest quarters.

SpaceX spent approximately $19.6 milliard on general chief expenditures in the third fourth as Grok creator continues its AI buildout. That was squarely in row alongside what Wall Street analysts were expecting.

Of that $19.6 billion, SpaceX reported spending $16.4 milliard on AI-related capex. Analysts were expecting $16.9 billion.

SpaceX expects capex to balloon in the current quarter, alongside CFO Bret Johnsen forecasting $35-$40 milliard because of new compute coming online. Johnsen additionally stated SpaceX expects to quickly see returns on its investments.

"At current pricing, new compute deployments are generating a payback of small than a year," he said.

SpaceX's inventory was selling up 4% following hours following the results. The business is broadcasting the earnings call on X, becoming one of a small catalog of companies to broadcast video of the gathering.

During the earnings call, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk stated that chips are no longer the biggest constraint to AI buildout.

"So talking concerning SpaceX superintelligence, SpaceXSI — "sexy," any — so as I think group are starting to acknowledge the constraints on deployment of superintelligence is additional in power and cooling and infrastructure than it is in chips," he said.

SpaceX's AI income grew considerably quarter-over-quarter to $7.6 milliard — onward of analysts' estimates of $6.3 billion. This study additionally marks the archetypal fourth since SpaceX purchased Cursor.

That income method that SpaceX's AI section officially brought in additional income than its Starlink business. Starlink brought in $5.2 milliard for the quarter.

SpaceXAI has since rebranded as SpaceXSI, following Musk's alignment alongside President Donald Trump's preferred rebranding of "artificial intelligence" to "super intelligence."

One area anywhere SpaceXSI has established several achievement is leasing its compute to Anthropic, Google, and Reflection AI. During the company's final earnings call, SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen stated the leasing arrangements had generated $1.6 milliard in additional revenue.

Musk stated that SpaceX is being inundated alongside lease requests.

"We are additionally frankly hounded relentlessly by all hyperscaler and by dozens of smaller companies to rent additional of our compute," he said. "So we could rent out our compute multiple times complete if we stated yes to everyone."

Overall, he stated the allocation for SpaceX compute is item "that's going to alter from one duration to the next."

"I conjecture as a coarse approximation, our goal is to benevolent of divided it 50/50 additional or less, anywhere fractional of the compute is used internally, and fractional of it is rented to others," he said. "But that figure could change 60/40 one way or the other."

Correction: Tuesday, October 20, 2026 — An before type of this narrative incorrectly included two values for SpaceX's general capex. The accurate value is $19.6 billion.