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SpaceX's Third Quarter of 2026: What the Filings Show

BSM · With Grok Bot and ChatGPT

On October 20, 2026, SpaceX reported its third-quarter results and held an earnings webcast. This article is built from what the company put in writing and from two other primary documents. It does not report statements from the webcast. Those have not been verified by listening to SpaceX's official replay, and machine-generated captions cannot confirm who said what or exactly how.

How to read the numbers

The figures below are company-reported results (furnished, unaudited). They come from SpaceX's Q3 2026 Earnings Update, which the company furnished as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K (accession 0001628280-26-066482). Three things are worth keeping in mind.

First, the results are unaudited. That is normal for a quarterly update, but it matters. A third-quarter Form 10-Q did not appear in the SEC's EDGAR filing index for SpaceX when Grok checked it at 2:22 p.m. ET on October 21, 2026, so the detailed notes that usually accompany these numbers were not available.

Second, the update was furnished to the SEC rather than filed, a distinction about legal liability. We call these numbers "reported."

Third, Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure. It excludes depreciation, stock-based compensation, interest, taxes and several other items, and SpaceX itself cautions against using it in isolation. Depreciation is a real cost for a hardware-heavy business, so we give GAAP figures alongside it.

One piece of context on ownership. SpaceX's Q2 2026 Form 10-Q (Note 1) states that SpaceX completed its acquisition of X.AI Holdings Corp. (xAI) on February 2, 2026, making xAI a wholly owned subsidiary. The same note says xAI had earlier, on March 28, 2025, acquired X Holdings Corp. and X.AI Corp. SpaceX's earnings update describes Grok Bot as "our always-on agentic SI system." BSM uses Grok Bot in its research and publishing workflow; see the disclosure at the end.

The headline quarter

SpaceX reported revenue of $14.6 billion for the quarter ended September 30, up 161% from $5.6 billion a year earlier and up from $7.8 billion in the second quarter. Income from operations was $2.8 billion, compared with an operating loss of $143 million in the second quarter. Net income was $4.4 billion, compared with a net loss of $1.1 billion a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA was $8.8 billion, up 306%.

The mix has shifted. The Super Intelligence (SI) segment, which SpaceX previously reported as "Artificial Intelligence," brought in $7.56 billion, about 52% of third-quarter revenue. Connectivity, which is Starlink, contributed $5.25 billion, about 36%. Space, the launch business, contributed $1.77 billion, about 12%. By third-quarter segment revenue, Space is now the smallest of the three.

A single quarter can flatter. For the first nine months of 2026, revenue was $27.1 billion, compared with $13.7 billion a year earlier, and income from operations was $705 million. On a nine-month basis, SpaceX reported a net loss of $413 million.

Net income versus operating income

Third-quarter net income was $4,404 million and income from operations was $2,791 million. The $1,613 million difference, by BSM's arithmetic, comes entirely from items below the operating line: interest income of $873 million, other income, net, of $1,025 million, and an income tax benefit of $390 million, partly offset by interest expense of $675 million (873 + 1,025 + 390 − 675 = 1,613).

Two of those lines involve related parties. Of the other income, $561 million is labeled as related party, and of the interest expense, $351 million is. Ex. 99.1 does not name the related parties. Interest income rose from $155 million a year earlier, alongside a much larger cash and securities balance. Because net income includes these items and a tax benefit, operating income is the cleaner measure of how the three businesses performed this quarter.

Super Intelligence

SpaceX attributes the SI segment's growth to the activation of new cloud services agreements, the acquisition of Cursor, and increased Grok adoption across enterprise customers and consumers. SI revenue was up 195% from the second quarter and 830% from a year earlier.

The segment reports two revenue lines. Advertising revenue was $538 million, up from $454 million a year earlier. SI solutions and infrastructure revenue rose to $7,022 million from $2,194 million in the second quarter and $359 million a year earlier. Ex. 99.1 does not break out cloud services revenue within that line, so this article does not estimate how much of the growth came from any single driver.

Cursor, the AI coding company, joined on August 14, at an implied equity value of $60 billion, and contributed $608 million of revenue through September 30. By BSM's arithmetic, SI revenue rose $4,999 million from the second quarter ($7,560 million − $2,561 million), and $4,391 million after subtracting Cursor's $608 million. That is arithmetic on segment totals. It is not a measure of cloud-only growth.

The GAAP purchase consideration for Cursor was $42.5 billion. Separately, about $23.4 billion of the equity awards issued in the deal is attributed to post-acquisition service, subject to future forfeitures, so it will be recognized as stock-based compensation over time rather than at closing. In the third quarter, that acquisition-related stock compensation was $1.2 billion.

SI income from operations was $431 million, an operating margin of about 6% by BSM's arithmetic, after absorbing the Cursor-related stock compensation. SI research and development was $3.2 billion, and segment depreciation and amortization was $2.5 billion, up from $0.9 billion a year earlier. Depreciation, regular stock compensation and acquisition-related stock compensation ($2,473 million, $821 million and $1,217 million) account for nearly all of the gap between SI Adjusted EBITDA of $4,953 million and operating income of $431 million. The segment was profitable on an operating basis this quarter, but narrowly.

SpaceX reports nameplate compute of 1.7 gigawatts at September 30, up from 1.4 gigawatts at June 30 and 0.6 gigawatts a year earlier. The term has a specific meaning. In its Q2 2026 10-Q, SpaceX defines nameplate compute draw as the number of GPUs installed in its data centers at period end multiplied by their respective all-in power draw. The company says the metric reflects installed capacity, not actual power consumption or utilization. It also excludes power used for supporting infrastructure such as cooling, power distribution losses and facility overhead. It is not a measure of total data-center power.

Our interpretation, not a company statement: on this quarter's revenue mix, the SI segment's economics resemble a compute and cloud business more than a traditional aerospace one.

Starlink had 13.6 million consumer subscribers at quarter end, up from 12.0 million at June 30 and 7.2 million a year earlier. SpaceX attributes the sequential growth to developed markets. It also reports "hundreds of thousands" of additional enterprise subscribers, which are not counted in the consumer figure. Consumer average revenue per user was $69 a month, compared with $66 in the second quarter and $83 a year earlier. The update does not give a reason for the year-over-year decline, and we do not supply one.

Connectivity revenue was $5.2 billion, up 69% year over year. Consumer revenue was $3.1 billion, up 57%, and enterprise and government revenue was $2.1 billion, up 91%. Segment costs and expenses rose $974 million from a year earlier; SpaceX attributes this primarily to its growing satellite constellation, Starlink kit deliveries and marketing. Income from operations for the segment rose 99% year over year to $2.4 billion, and segment Adjusted EBITDA rose 82% to $3.5 billion.

By BSM's arithmetic, Connectivity's operating margin was about 45% ($2,367 million ÷ $5,248 million), up from about 38% a year earlier ($1,190 million ÷ $3,097 million). Consumer subscribers rose about 89% year over year while consumer revenue rose 57%, which is arithmetically consistent with the lower ARPU. In this quarter, Connectivity had the highest operating income of the three segments, and its $1.5 billion of capex was a fraction of SI's $16.4 billion.

One definitional note: SpaceX's satellites-in-orbit count now includes de-orbit-approved satellites, and the company says the old definition would have excluded about 400 satellites from its third-quarter total.

In aviation, SpaceX reported more than 3,800 aircraft equipped with Starlink as of September 30.

After the quarter ended, on October 8, SpaceX agreed to acquire a nationwide low-band spectrum license portfolio of up to 14 megahertz of paired spectrum in the 800 MHz band, to advance its Starlink Mobile strategy. That refers to the frequency band, not 800 MHz of bandwidth. The company expects the deal to close in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory and other closing conditions. This purchase is separate from the EchoStar spectrum discussed below.

What the FCC actually approved

The FCC's order DA 26-1078, adopted and released October 6, 2026, authorized a SpaceX direct-to-device constellation of 15,000 satellites in nine very low orbital shells between 326 and 335 kilometers. The order lists its scope as Supplemental Coverage from Space and Mobile Satellite Service within the United States, Mobile Satellite Service and direct-to-cell outside it, and satellite backhaul and control links. Each is limited to the specific bands and service areas the grant lists. The application was granted in part and deferred in part, with conditions.

The most important condition concerns specific bands. According to the order, the FCC approved the assignment of AWS-4, AWS-H Block and unpaired AWS-3 licenses from EchoStar to SpaceX through a two-step transaction: first to a trust for SpaceX's benefit, then from the trust to SpaceX. SpaceX's operating authority in the 2 GHz MSS/AWS-4, AWS-H Block and AWS-3 bands is conditioned on consummating Step Two of that transaction. SpaceX may deploy and test payloads in those bands during orbit raising, with the consent of EchoStar and the trust, but operating in them waits on Step Two. The order does not set a date for Step Two, and we do not supply one. This condition applies to those EchoStar bands, not to the separate 800 MHz purchase.

The order sets deployment milestones: SpaceX must launch and operate 50% of the authorized satellites by October 7, 2032, and the full constellation by October 7, 2035. These are regulatory deadlines, not service start dates. The order also requires a surety bond to be posted by November 4, 2026, and sets a 15-year license term that begins when the first satellite reaches its authorized orbit.

Parts of the request were held back. The FCC deferred SpaceX's proposed use of the 2020–2025 MHz band in the United States and its broader request for direct-to-cell service outside the United States. Viasat's petition to deny was denied in part and deferred in part.

The approval is real, but conditional, multi-year and partial.

Starship and launch

Space revenue was $1.77 billion, up 6% year over year and 84% from the second quarter. Launch services contributed $1.13 billion and launch and development revenue $637 million. SpaceX flew 12 customer launches, including NASA's mission to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, and 23 internal launches, for 35 in total, compared with 44 a year earlier. Mass to orbit was 476 metric tons, compared with 525 a year earlier. Launch volume was lower than a year ago even as revenue rose.

The segment's operating loss narrowed to $7 million, compared with a $542 million loss in the second quarter and income of $259 million a year earlier. For the first nine months, Space lost $1.2 billion at the operating level. SpaceX says segment costs rose $367 million year over year as it accelerated Starship research and development; Space R&D was $1.2 billion in the quarter.

SpaceX also reported additions to its customer launch pipeline: three NASA ISS crew missions, 18 National Security Space Launch missions, three commercial Starfall missions, and a contract to deliver a payload to the lunar surface with Starship.

Starship Flight 14 delivered 26 Starlink V3 satellites. SpaceX describes it as a revenue-generating orbital flight and says the satellites represent about ten times the downlink capacity added by a Falcon 9 Starlink launch.

SpaceX also announced the planned development of Starbase, Louisiana, a spaceport it says is designed to support thousands of Starship flights a year. The earnings update says the first launch there is targeted for 2029.

The capex wave

In the third quarter, SpaceX spent $19.6 billion on capital expenditures, $16.4 billion of it in the SI segment. For the first nine months of 2026, capex totaled $48.1 billion, compared with $13.8 billion in the same period of 2025.

By BSM's arithmetic, third-quarter SI capex was about 2.2 times third-quarter SI revenue ($16,444 million ÷ $7,560 million). Over nine months, SI capex was about 3.7 times SI revenue ($39,995 million ÷ $10,939 million ≈ 3.66).

Spending on this scale turns into depreciation. Company-wide depreciation and amortization was $3.6 billion in the third quarter, double the $1.8 billion of a year earlier. Property, plant and equipment, net, rose to $89.5 billion at September 30 from $42.6 billion at the end of 2025.

SI Adjusted EBITDA went from a loss of $428 million a year earlier to a profit of $4,953 million. Adjusted EBITDA excludes depreciation, and capital spending is recognized as depreciation over the assets' useful lives.

How it is being paid for

Ex. 99.1 includes a cash flow statement for the nine months ended September 30, but not for the third quarter alone. Over those nine months, operating activities provided $13,097 million of cash. Purchases of property, plant and equipment used $48,069 million. By BSM's arithmetic, operating cash flow covered about 27% of that spending ($13,097 million ÷ $48,069 million), leaving a gap of $34,972 million.

Financing filled it. The statement shows $85,675 million of net IPO proceeds, $51,834 million of debt and other financing proceeds against $39,845 million of repayments, and $8,319 million from issuing capital stock. Deferred revenue, cash collected for services not yet delivered, contributed $4,922 million to operating cash flow.

At September 30, SpaceX held $51.3 billion of cash and cash equivalents and $38.6 billion of marketable securities. Total debt and finance leases were about $38.8 billion by BSM's arithmetic ($2,698 million current plus $36,146 million non-current), of which about $12.9 billion is owed to related parties. Deferred revenue totaled about $17.5 billion. Goodwill rose to $48.4 billion from $11.8 billion at the end of 2025, and shareholders' equity was $176.8 billion. In the update's written commentary, the CFO describes the goal as maintaining a "robust, investment-grade balance sheet."

These are historical figures. A nine-month cash flow statement cannot show how future capital spending will be funded. The IPO was the largest single financing inflow in the period. The open question is whether operating cash flow can take over from capital raising as the main funder of capex.

The risks

SpaceX's own forward-looking statements name many of the risks, including obtaining sufficient power and GPUs, the amount and timing of capital expenditures, future debt levels, and regulatory approvals for Starlink Mobile. Read against the numbers, six stand out.

Customer disclosure. SpaceX lists cloud services agreements among the SI growth drivers, and Ex. 99.1 does not disclose how many customers are behind them. If a few contracts account for much of the revenue, losing or renegotiating one could matter. The update does not let readers tell.

Power and build-out. Nameplate compute counts installed GPUs, not cooling or other facility power. If supporting infrastructure lags, installed equipment can depreciate without earning.

Depreciation catching up. With $48.1 billion of capex in nine months, depreciation will keep rising. GAAP operating income depends on revenue growing fast enough to absorb it.

Funding mix. Over nine months, operating cash flow covered about 27% of capex, by BSM's arithmetic. If revenue growth slows while spending stays high, more debt or equity may be needed.

Regulatory conditions. Operating in the EchoStar bands depends on Step Two of that transaction. The constellation must meet the 2032 and 2035 deployment deadlines. The separate 800 MHz purchase is subject to regulatory and closing conditions.

Related parties. Ex. 99.1 reports related-party other income, interest expense and debt without naming the counterparties.

None of these means the bullish case is wrong. They are places where it could weaken, and readers can follow most of them in future filings.

Sources and method

Reported figures come from three primary documents: SpaceX's Q3 2026 earnings update (Exhibit 99.1 to its October 20 Form 8-K), its Q2 2026 Form 10-Q (Note 1 and the nameplate compute definition in Management's Discussion and Analysis), and FCC order DA 26-1078. Research was done by Grok Bot for BSM. Figures marked as BSM's arithmetic are our calculations, with the inputs shown, not company figures. Statements made on the October 20 webcast are not used, because they have not been verified by listening to the official replay.

What to watch

SpaceX's reported quarter is remarkable by any standard. The filings show both the scale of the turn and how much of it was paid for by capital raising rather than operations.

Sources

Disclosures

BSM uses Grok Bot in its research and publishing workflow. This article was researched and drafted with Grok Bot. ChatGPT coordinated workflows and production and provided quality control and quality assurance.

Grok Bot is a SpaceX product, and xAI is a wholly owned subsidiary of SpaceX (SpaceX Form 10-Q for Q2 2026, Note 1).

Financial figures are company-reported results (furnished, unaudited). This article is not investment advice.

Contributors: Grok Bot, ChatGPT, Selah, Trinity, and Brandon

The contributors line identifies the people and tools involved in this project. Brandon reviewed and approved this article for publication.

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