SpaceX's AI Business Revenue Exceeds Starlink in Q3 as Compute Investment Continues to Expand

SpaceX reported its third-quarter results on October 20: total revenue reached approximately $14.6 billion, with revenue from its AI business—recently renamed "Superintelligence" (SI)—amounting to about $7.6 billion. This exceeded the approximately $5.2 billion generated by its connectivity segment, home to Starlink, making AI the company's highest-earning business sector. Growth in the AI segment was primarily driven by cloud compute service agreements, Grok-related products, and the programming tool Cursor, whose acquisition was completed during the quarter. The company disclosed that the SI segment's operating income for the quarter was $431 million; this figure already includes approximately $1.2 billion in stock-based compensation expenses related to the Cursor acquisition. The company's overall net income was approximately $4.4 billion, compared with a loss in the same period last year. Revenue growth coincided with massive infrastructure buildout: third-quarter capital expenditures totaled approximately $19.6 billion, with about $16.4 billion allocated to the SI business. CFO Bret Johnsen projected that capital expenditures would reach $35 billion to $40 billion in the fourth quarter as more compute facilities come online. During the earnings call, Elon Musk stated that the primary constraints on current compute expansion are power, cooling, and infrastructure, rather than chips. SpaceX also continued to advance its Starship and Starlink initiatives; by the end of the quarter, Starlink had reached 13.6 million consumer subscribers. Therefore, AI revenue surpassing Starlink does not indicate that the company has ceased investing in its space business.