SpaceX swung to its first quarterly profit as a public company on Tuesday, reporting about $14.58 billion in third-quarter revenue — up 161% from a year earlier — and roughly $4.4 billion in net income, versus a net loss of about $1.1 billion in the same period last year, according to Reuters.
The engine of the quarter was SpaceX’s artificial intelligence business. Its Super Intelligence segment generated roughly $7.6 billion in revenue — about a ninefold increase from a year earlier — overtaking Starlink as the company’s biggest revenue source for the first time. Starlink has about 13.6 million subscribers.
On the earnings call, CEO Elon Musk said a merger of SpaceX and Tesla “would be a good idea,” confirming that both companies have formed special committees of independent directors to study a combination. Musk said he would recuse himself from the discussions. He cautioned that a deal is not assured and would require shareholder approval.
Wall Street reacts
The results revived the AI trade that sold off last week. Reuters reported SpaceX shares rose 9.4% in premarket trading Wednesday and Tesla 1.7%. All three major U.S. indexes closed higher: the Nasdaq added about 1.05% to close near 26,702, the S&P 500 rose 0.58% to about 7,757, and the Dow climbed 0.69% to about 52,856.
Super Micro Computer jumped 9.55% after forecasting quarterly revenue and margins above Wall Street estimates, while Nvidia, Intel and AMD also rose, Reuters reported. The 10-year Treasury yield held near 5.15%.
What it means for your money
For ordinary investors, the bounce means retirement accounts tied to index funds recovered some of last week’s AI-selloff losses — the Nasdaq had snapped a four-week winning streak. But with the 10-year yield above 5%, borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans and credit cards stay elevated even when stocks rise. And a SpaceX–Tesla merger, if it ever happens, would be the largest corporate combination in history, with huge implications for anyone holding index funds — both companies are major index weights.
Sources: Reuters; CNBC; The New York Post.
