SpaceX revenue jumps 161% on AI compute rentals; Musk says Tesla merger committees have been formed

Elon Musk’s SpaceX said on Tuesday, 20 October, that third-quarter revenue rose 161% to about $14.6 billion, beating the analysts’ average estimate of $12.72 billion compiled by LSEG, Reuters reported.

AI is now the biggest line

Most of the growth came from SpaceX’s AI business, which earns money mainly by renting data-centre computing capacity to developers such as Anthropic, Google and Reflection AI. According to the BBC, that business brought in about $7.5 billion in the quarter, up from $813 million a year earlier, while Starlink revenue rose to $5.2 billion from $3 billion. SpaceX reported a $4.4 billion profit for the quarter, but over the first nine months of the year it still lost $1.1 billion, the BBC said.

Merger talk

On the analyst call Musk confirmed that SpaceX and Tesla have each formed special committees to examine a combination. “The special committees have not reached agreement on terms of any transaction and there’s no guarantee that they will,” he said, adding that he sees “a lot of merit” in the idea. Musk said he is not on either committee because he is a “conflicted party”, and that at least 50% of Tesla shareholders would need to approve a deal.

SpaceX shares rose about 6-8% after hours, and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.9% on Wednesday morning, Yahoo Finance reported. Tesla and Meta report results after Wednesday’s close.