SpaceX Posts $4.4 Billion Profit as Musk Confirms Tesla Merger Committees

SpaceX turned in a blowout quarter on Tuesday, and Elon Musk used the earnings call to confirm the step many investors had been waiting for: formal talks about combining SpaceX and Tesla.

The results, released after the market closed on Oct. 20, showed a company now driven as much by artificial intelligence as by rockets and satellites. Here is what SpaceX reported, what the merger news does and does not mean, and why it matters for anyone who owns Tesla or a broad index fund.

What did SpaceX report for the third quarter?

SpaceX said third-quarter revenue rose 161% to $14.58 billion and net income was $4.4 billion, compared with a $1.1 billion loss a year earlier. Analysts had expected about $1.57 billion in profit. Adjusted earnings were 45 cents a share versus the 13 cents expected, and AI revenue rose nearly tenfold to $7.56 billion.

Most of that AI revenue came from renting data-center capacity, according to Reuters. SpaceX's AI business spans the Grok chatbot, the social platform X and its data-center operation. Revenue also topped the roughly $12.7 billion analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected, Yahoo Finance reported ahead of the release.

Starlink, the satellite internet service, ended the quarter with 13.6 million subscribers, above the 12.19 million analysts expected. But each customer is paying less on average: monthly revenue per subscriber was $69 in the third quarter, down from $99 in 2023.

**Related read:** As we covered in our look at SpaceX's spectrum deal and what it means for phone carriers, Starlink is pushing deeper into everyday connectivity, which helps explain the subscriber growth.

What did Musk say about a Tesla merger?

On the call, Musk said SpaceX and Tesla have each formed a special committee of independent directors to evaluate a potential merger. "I think it would be a good idea, but it's really up to the special committees of both companies," Musk said. "Because I'm a conflicted party, I can't actually be in the discussion of the special committees."