SpaceX releases first earnings since IPO, showing the heavy cost of its AI business

SpaceX has published its first earnings report since its stock market debut on June 12. The second-quarter results are broadly positive: revenue rose 92 percent year over year to $7.8 billion, while net losses narrowed to $541 million from $1 billion a year earlier.

A closer look at the figures, however, shows how expensive it is to run an AI company. The division formerly known as xAI generated $2.56 billion in revenue during the quarter, up 247 percent from $737 million a year ago. SpaceX attributes most of that growth to cloud services agreements, including the widely publicized deals with Anthropic and Google to use its data centers. The division also cut its operating loss to $1.25 billion, down from $1.54 billion.

At the same time, SpaceX dramatically increased capital expenditure. Quarterly CapEx jumped 2,013 percent year over year to $15.8 billion. For comparison, the rocket launch side of the business spent only a relatively small amount on maintaining and improving its fixed assets. These figures provide one of the clearest looks yet at the finances of an AI startup — especially one that many regard as the fourth major player in the AI race, behind Anthropic, Google and OpenAI.

Adding to the picture, Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.25 billion per month through May 2029 to use SpaceX's Colossus 1 data center for its computing needs. It remains to be seen how SpaceX's pending Cursor acquisition will affect the AI division's bottom line once the deal closes later this quarter.