Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

When most people hear Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX +3.73%), they probably picture a rocket blasting into space.

That's understandable. Rockets are how SpaceX became famous. But investors who think SpaceX is simply a rocket company are missing the bigger picture, since the company is increasingly becoming a collection of businesses that reinforce one another.

And I think investors should think about it in three layers.

Image source: Getty Images.

Starlink is the economic foundation The first layer is Starlink.

Starlink provides internet connectivity through a growing constellation of satellites orbiting Earth. Unlike Starship or some of SpaceX's more ambitious projects, it's no longer a promise about the future.

It's a real business with millions of paying customers. Starlink ended the second quarter with approximately 12 million subscribers, double the number from a year earlier. Connectivity revenue rose 66% to $4.3 billion, while operating income reached roughly $1.7 billion.

That's significant. Starlink is increasingly becoming the financial engine that allows SpaceX to pursue much larger opportunities.

And the market opportunity extends well beyond households. Starlink is expanding into aviation, maritime, enterprise, government, and mobile connectivity. Enterprise and government revenue grew 108% year over year in the latest quarter, accounting for 42% of total revenue.

If Starlink can continue to scale profitably, it will generate even more profits to fund SpaceX's other ambitious projects.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) could become the next massive growth engine The second layer is much newer: artificial intelligence (AI).

SpaceX's AI-related revenue jumped 247% year over year to $2.6 billion in the second quarter. The company is rapidly building computing infrastructure to serve demand for AI workloads.

That growth is remarkable. But here's where investors need to look beyond the headline. SpaceX spent approximately $15.8 billion on AI infrastructure during the quarter. That's roughly 6 times the segment's quarterly revenue.

So the important question isn't simply whether AI revenue is growing quickly. It's whether SpaceX can earn attractive returns on the enormous amount of capital it is investing. If it can, the opportunity could be huge.

SpaceX has already demonstrated that it can build infrastructure at a scale few companies can match. Its ability to combine that infrastructure with access to capital, engineering talent, and its own launch capabilities could give it an unusual competitive position.

Still, AI is the exciting new part of the SpaceX story, so it's not quite as proven a business as Starlink. Investors should closely monitor the development of this business and how it complements Starlink's existing offerings.

Rockets are the infrastructure This is the part of SpaceX that investors could easily misunderstand. The rocket business isn't necessarily the destination. It's the transportation infrastructure that allows the rest of the ecosystem to exist.

Think of it this way. Falcon 9 already gives SpaceX a highly successful launch platform. But the newer Starship is designed to change the economics of space much more dramatically.

Starship is SpaceX's next-generation reusable rocket system. The company intends for both the spacecraft and its booster to be rapidly reusable, while carrying substantially more payload than Falcon 9.

SpaceX believes Starship could eventually increase payload capacity dramatically and reduce launch costs by roughly an order of magnitude. If that happens, the implications go far beyond launching rockets.

SpaceX could deploy more Starlink satellites. It could build larger satellite networks. It could support more commercial and government missions. And it could potentially put large amounts of computing infrastructure into orbit.

That last possibility is particularly interesting.

SpaceX is already pursuing orbital AI infrastructure and has announced plans for a $100 billion Starbase Louisiana complex intended to support Starship and future AI satellite operations. That's a remarkable investment in infrastructure for something that doesn't yet exist at a meaningful commercial scale.

But it reveals how SpaceX thinks about the future. Starship isn't merely a bigger rocket. It could be the platform that makes SpaceX's next generation of businesses economically possible.

Putting the SpaceX flywheel together Put the pieces together, and the investment thesis for SpaceX becomes much more interesting.

Starlink generates recurring revenue and profits. Those profits can help fund new infrastructure like Starship. Starship could eventually make launches dramatically cheaper. Cheaper launches could allow SpaceX to deploy more satellites, more quickly. More satellites increase Starlink's capacity.

At the same time, growing demand for AI creates another enormous market for computing infrastructure. And if SpaceX can eventually deploy some of that infrastructure in space, it could open an entirely new market.

Each business potentially makes the others more valuable. And that's the SpaceX story.

In short, investors aren't simply buying rockets. They're buying a company attempting to control multiple layers of the infrastructure connecting Earth, satellites, communications, and computing.

Few companies on the planet are positioned to do that.

Key Takeaways SPCX briefly regained a $2 trillion valuation amid optimism over Starlink, launches and AI expansion.Starlink's expansion boosts recurring revenues, while vertical integration lowers satellite launch costs.SpaceX faces high capital needs, execution risks, rising competition and regulatory uncertainty. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SPCX - Free Report) has briefly regained the coveted $2 trillion market capitalization mark, reflecting renewed investor optimism surrounding its expanding Starlink business, unmatched launch capabilities, progress on Starship and growing exposure to government and defense spending.

The rebound underscores Wall Street’s confidence in SpaceX’s ability to capitalize on rapidly expanding opportunities across satellite broadband, commercial space launches and next-generation space transportation. Its vertically integrated business model, technological leadership and growing recurring revenue base have also strengthened the investment case.

Starlink: Key Growth EngineStarlink's continued expansion is one of the biggest pillars supporting SpaceX’s valuation. The satellite broadband platform has steadily broadened its reach across residential, enterprise, aviation, maritime and government markets.

Growing adoption increases the proportion of recurring subscription revenues within SpaceX’s overall business mix, reducing its dependence on the comparatively project-driven launch business. The improved revenue visibility can potentially support stronger margins and more predictable cash flows over the long run.

Starlink also benefits from SpaceX’s ability to launch its own satellites at relatively low incremental cost. This vertical integration allows the company to expand its network faster while avoiding the launch expenses that competing satellite operators typically incur. Continued investment in higher-capacity satellites and improved network infrastructure should further strengthen Starlink’s ability to address rising global demand for high-speed connectivity.

Launch Dominance Boosts SpaceX’s Competitive PositionSpaceX’s formidable position in the orbital launch market is another major factor supporting investor confidence. The company’s reusable Falcon 9 platform has transformed launch economics by significantly lowering the cost of accessing orbit. Reusability, high launch frequency and an established operating track record have created formidable competitive advantages that rivals find difficult to replicate.

Higher launch cadence also generates operating efficiencies. SpaceX can spread fixed infrastructure and development costs across a larger number of missions, potentially strengthening profitability as volumes increase. Demand continues to originate from a diverse customer base that includes commercial satellite operators, government agencies, national-security customers and SpaceX’s own Starlink constellation. This diversified launch pipeline provides another layer of revenue visibility.

The ability to serve external customers while simultaneously supporting Starlink deployment gives SpaceX an ecosystem advantage that remains difficult for competing launch providers to match.

AI, Data and Global Connectivity Lend SupportAnother factor supporting the bullish narrative is the increasing importance of global connectivity. Demand for data transmission continues to grow as cloud computing, AI, autonomous systems and connected devices proliferate worldwide. Satellite communications could become an increasingly important component of this infrastructure, particularly in areas where terrestrial broadband remains inadequate. Starlink's global network gives SpaceX exposure to this secular trend.

The company plans to deploy AI compute satellites as early as 2028, effectively creating space-based data centers capable of delivering large-scale computing capacity. This initiative leverages SpaceX's leadership in satellite deployment while addressing the growing demand for AI computing resources. Alongside its satellite ambitions, SpaceX continues to expand its Colossus data center platform, strengthening its position in AI infrastructure. The buyout of Anysphere – a startup firm behind the rapidly growing AI coding assistant Cursor – gives SpaceX exposure to a high-growth software business while strengthening its AI capabilities. It adds a widely adopted developer platform that could complement the company's growing technology portfolio.

Estimate Revision TrendThe Zacks Consensus Estimate for SpaceX’s 2026 loss has narrowed from 53 cents per share to 5 cents over the past 30 days. The same for 2027 earnings has improved from 68 cents to $1.63. The positive estimate revision depicts bullish sentiments about the stock’s growth potential.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Likely PitfallsDespite the strong growth prospects, SPCX is not devoid of challenges. A $2 trillion valuation leaves relatively little room for execution disappointments and implies significant expectations for future revenue and earnings growth. Any slowdown in Starlink subscriber additions, delays in Starship development or deterioration in launch reliability could pressure investor sentiment.

SpaceX also faces substantial capital requirements. Building satellites, developing launch vehicles and expanding communications infrastructure require persistent investment. Meanwhile, competition across the satellite Internet and launch markets is intensifying as governments and private companies invest aggressively in alternative platforms. Regulatory uncertainty surrounding spectrum allocation, orbital congestion and international market access represents another potential headwind.

Price PerformanceSpaceX has declined 6.9% since its IPO against the industry’s growth of 117.4% over the past month. It has lagged peers like Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ - Free Report) and AT&T Inc. (T - Free Report) over this period. While Verizon has jumped 5.2%, AT&T is up 11.1%. 

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

End NoteSpaceX is steadily transforming from a pure-play aerospace company into a diversified AI infrastructure leader. Its aggressive investments in AI computing, expanding enterprise partnerships and plans for space-based data centers underscore management's conviction that AI will be a key driver of future growth.

Although the AI segment is likely to remain under pressure in the near term due to elevated investment levels, the company's long-term growth prospects appear increasingly tied to the rapid expansion of the global AI infrastructure market. While high operating costs and execution risks warrant attention, SpaceX appears well-positioned to benefit from the secular growth of the space economy. Those who already own the stock can hold onto it while new investors may wait for a better entry point.

SpaceX currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

When investors think about CoreWeave's (CRWV -3.58%) biggest competitors, names like Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Nebius probably come to mind.

But one of the most interesting potential competitors doesn't look like a cloud company at all. It builds rockets. And yes, it's Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX -1.02%), also known as SpaceX.

That may sound strange. SpaceX is best known for rockets and Starlink, while CoreWeave provides cloud computing for artificial intelligence. But the lines between those businesses are beginning to blur.

SpaceX and its AI ecosystem are building enormous amounts of computing capacity, including massive Nvidia-powered data centers. And that capacity is increasingly being made available to outside customers.

For CoreWeave investors, this matters for a reason that goes beyond losing a few customers -- SpaceX could help change the economics of AI computing itself.

Image source: Getty Images.

CoreWeave is essentially selling computing power The easiest way to understand CoreWeave is to think of it as a utility for AI.

Companies building advanced AI models need enormous amounts of computing power. Instead of spending billions of dollars building everything themselves, they can rent access to specialized infrastructure from providers such as CoreWeave.

CoreWeave supplies the GPUs, data centers, networking, storage, and software needed to make that computing power available. The business has benefited from a powerful trend: AI demand has grown extremely quickly, while new computing capacity takes time and enormous amounts of money to build.

That imbalance has been good for CoreWeave. For perspective, the tech company grew revenue by 112% in the latest quarter to $2.6 billion while revenue backlog surged 246% to $104 billion.

But it also creates an important question for long-term investors: What happens when the supply of AI computing catches up with demand? That's where SpaceX becomes interesting.

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The rocket company is building an AI empire SpaceX's connection to AI comes largely through xAI and its massive Colossus computing facilities. These data centers have been built to support the enormous computing requirements of AI models and deploy hundreds of thousands of Nvidia GPUs.

But the infrastructure isn't necessarily limited to internal use. SpaceX has also signed agreements to provide computing capacity to outside companies, including major AI players. For perspective, SpaceX announced that it contracted $14.1 billion in computing power to external customers in the latest quarter.

That changes the story. SpaceX isn't simply building computers to support an AI company. It is increasingly becoming part of the AI computing market. And unlike a typical start-up entering the industry, SpaceX brings an unusual collection of advantages.

SpaceX has something most competitors don't CoreWeave's biggest advantage is specialization. It has focused primarily on AI infrastructure.

SpaceX has a completely different advantage: scale and engineering capability. Building AI infrastructure requires far more than buying Nvidia GPUs. It requires enormous amounts of electricity, suitable land, data centers, cooling systems, networking equipment, and the ability to bring all of it online quickly.

SpaceX has spent years building extremely complex physical infrastructure in industries where failure is not an option. That doesn't automatically make it a better AI cloud provider. But it gives the company an unusual ability to tackle the physical constraints that limit AI computing.

And that could become increasingly important as the industry expands.

CoreWeave still has a powerful weapon None of this means CoreWeave's investment thesis is broken. In fact, the company has an advantage that's difficult for newcomers to replicate: experience.

Running a massive GPU cluster isn't simply about owning GPUs. Customers need reliable performance, fast deployment, efficient scheduling, high utilization, and software that makes thousands of GPUs work together effectively.

CoreWeave has been building that expertise for years. Its specialization also allows it to focus entirely on AI infrastructure rather than balancing the business against rockets, satellites, or other priorities. Besides, it has developed relationships with major AI customers, positioning it well to expand with these customers.

So the competition may ultimately come down to two very different strengths. SpaceX has scale and engineering firepower. CoreWeave has specialization and AI-cloud expertise.

What CoreWeave investors should watch This is why four things deserve close attention over the next several years.

The first is pricing. If CoreWeave can maintain attractive pricing as computing supply increases, that's a sign its platform remains differentiated.

The second is GPU utilization. Expensive GPUs only create value when customers are actually using them.

The third is capital efficiency. CoreWeave is spending enormous amounts of money to expand. Investors need to see those investments producing increasingly attractive returns.

And finally, watch customer diversification. A broader customer base would reduce CoreWeave's dependence on a small number of enormous AI customers and strengthen its bargaining position.

If CoreWeave delivers on these four areas, it may signal that the company has built a defensive position against large tech giants like SpaceX and, to an extent, incumbents like Amazon and Alphabet.

The Roman telescope launch adds another high-profile government mission to SpaceX's Falcon Heavy record. Summary

NASA’s Roman telescope cost about $4.3 billionSpaceX launched it aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SPCX, Financials), the aerospace company, successfully launched NASA's $4.3 billion Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The telescope is beginning a mission expected to last five to 10 years and will eventually operate roughly 1 million miles from Earth.

For SpaceX, the investor angle is less about the telescope's scientific goals and more about what the launch says about government demand for its heavy-lift capabilities.

Falcon Heavy has become an important part of SpaceX's launch portfolio for large and complex payloads, including high-value government missions.

Roman will study dark matter, dark energy and planets outside the solar system. NASA expects scientific observations to begin as early as December, with the first images due in 2027.

The telescope can survey the sky roughly 1,000 times faster than Hubble and uses a wide-field infrared camera capable of capturing far larger areas at once.

L3Harris Technologies supplied the 2.4-meter Optical Telescope Assembly used by the mission.

For SpaceX, each successful government launch adds another proof point for reliability as agencies award increasingly expensive space contracts.

The next test will be whether Falcon Heavy continues winning high-value government missions as NASA and defense spending on space infrastructure expands.

Disclosures I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and have no plans to buy any new positions in the stocks mentioned within the next 72 hours.

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For years, investors could only guess how much money Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX +0.45%) was making. Now, they finally have an answer.

SpaceX has reported its first quarterly results as a public company, giving investors an unprecedented look at the financial performance of one of the world's most ambitious businesses.

And the numbers are hard to ignore. Revenue nearly doubled from a year earlier. Starlink continued to add customers at a remarkable pace. The company is already generating billions of dollars from businesses beyond rocket launches.

So, after its first earnings report, is SpaceX stock a buy? I think investors should focus on three things.

Image source: Getty Images.

SpaceX is already a growth machine The first takeaway is simple: SpaceX is no longer just a futuristic story. It's already a large and rapidly growing business.

SpaceX generated $7.8 billion of revenue in the second quarter, up 92% from a year earlier. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) jumped 191% to $3.5 billion, while its net loss narrowed to $541 million.

Those are extraordinary growth rates for a company of this size. More importantly, the growth isn't coming from a single product.

SpaceX still operates a rocket launch business. But Starlink, its internet connectivity business, has become an increasingly important part of the company, while its artificial intelligence business is already generating billions of dollars in revenue.

That's an important distinction. Investors aren't buying a company that promises to build the future someday. SpaceX is already building and monetizing parts of that future.

And that's why the first earnings report matters. It gives investors something they didn't have before: financial evidence that the SpaceX machine is working.

Starlink could be the secret weapon Of all the numbers in the earnings report, I'd pay particular attention to Starlink.

The satellite internet business generated $4.3 billion of revenue in the quarter, up 66% from a year earlier. Its subscriber base reached roughly 12 million, about twice the level from a year ago.

But subscriber growth isn't the only interesting part. Starlink generated approximately $1.66 billion of operating income. That's what gets my attention.

Starlink isn't simply another exciting project that requires SpaceX to keep pouring money into it. It's becoming a profit engine.

Think about what that could mean. SpaceX can take the cash generated by Starlink and reinvest it into more satellites, rockets, and infrastructure. Those investments can expand Starlink's network and potentially allow it to serve more customers. More customers can produce more revenue and cash flow. That creates a potentially powerful flywheel.

In other words, Starlink gives SpaceX something many moonshot companies don't have -- a rapidly growing business that can help fund the moonshots. That could prove enormously valuable as the company pursues its ambitions.

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The stock price is the problem Here's where the investment case gets harder.

SpaceX's stock, as of this writing, trades at about $140, giving it a valuation of roughly $1.9 trillion. That's an extraordinary valuation, considering its latest revenue of $7.8 billion.

In other words, investors aren't paying $1.9 trillion for today's SpaceX. They're paying for tomorrow's SpaceX.

They're paying for continued Starlink growth. They're paying for the successful development of Starship -- SpaceX's next-generation rocket. They're paying for the company's rapidly expanding AI ambitions and for markets that may not even exist at a meaningful scale today.

That's why I wouldn't look at SpaceX's 92% revenue growth and conclude that the stock is cheap. It isn't. Great businesses can still be poor investments when expectations get too high.

At this valuation, SpaceX has to deliver more than impressive growth. It has to deliver years of extraordinary growth and eventually convert that growth into substantially higher free cash flow.

So, should investors buy SpaceX? After its first earnings report, I'm more interested in SpaceX than I was before.

The company is growing at an extraordinary rate. Starlink is becoming a meaningful profit generator. And, perhaps most importantly, SpaceX is demonstrating that it can turn ambitious technology into businesses with real customers and real revenue.

But I wouldn't chase the stock simply because the numbers look impressive. The market already knows SpaceX is special. The question is whether it can become far more valuable than even today's enormous expectations suggest.

For that reason, I'd rather buy SpaceX during periods of weakness than at any price. A disappointing Starship test, slower Starlink subscriber growth, or concerns about the company's enormous capital spending could all cause the market to rethink its expectations.

Those moments may create better opportunities for long-term investors.

A funny thing happened when Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX -1.44%) reported earnings this month. First, SpaceX declined 13.6% despite beats on both earnings per share and sales for the company. SpaceX lost only $0.09 per share in the quarter, where Wall Street had predicted a $0.29-per-share loss. Sales of $7.8 billion eclipsed forecasts by $1 billion.

Potentially worse news for investors, the earnings announcement triggered a "lock-up" expiration, permitting SpaceX insiders to sell 20% of their stock. A second lock-up expires later this week, when SpaceX passes the 70-days-after-IPO mark, allowing another 7% of the stock to be sold.

But instead of continuing to fall, SpaceX stock did a U-turn. It recovered all its losses and by Wednesday's close was back above its IPO price and trading for $140 a share.

And one Wall Street analyst thinks this is only the beginning of the rally for SpaceX stock.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Morgan Stanley loves SpaceX stock SpaceX today carries a market capitalization of $1.9 trillion. It has no profit to back up that valuation, granted, thanks to an artificial intelligence division that's losing more than $1 billion per quarter -- and burning through tens of billions of dollars per year.

But that doesn't scare Morgan Stanley one bit.

In a note released last week, MS analyst Adam Jonas argues that SpaceX's non-AI businesses alone support nearly all of the present value of SpaceX stock, based on a combination of forecast sales and "earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization" (EBITDA). To hear Jonas tell it, SpaceX AI comes basically free of charge on top of what investors are already paying for the rest of SpaceX.

Valuing SpaceX as a sum of its parts Here's how the math works.

Over the past 12 months, the Space and Connectivity divisions of SpaceX -- essentially, everything not AI -- generated a combined $17.9 billion in sales and $8.6 billion in EBITDA, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. AI generated $5.1 billion in sales, but negative EBITDA of $313 million.

Jonas, however, foresees incredible growth for SpaceX over the next couple of years, in Space and Connectivity, and especially in AI.

The analyst calculates that earnings from Space and Connectivity justify the first $127 of SpaceX's current $140 share price -- so 91% of the stock's total market cap. Valuing the stock at 52 times 2028 EBITDA, and reverse-engineering Jonas' math, implies a forecast of $31.5 billion in EBITDA for Space and Connectivity in 2028 -- a 266% increase in just two years.

Meanwhile, consensus estimates on Wall Street have SpaceX as a whole generating $126.8 billion in EBITDA in 2028. Backing out the $31.5 billion contribution from Space and Connectivity, the AI division flips from a loss today to a $95.3 billion EBITDA profit just two years from now.

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How to value SpaceXAI This is a bold prediction. Assuming these estimates are correct, investors are valuing Space and Connectivity EBITDA at a 52 multiple. But they're valuing EBITDA from AI at an ultralow 1.7, giving this division a standalone market capitalization of just $162 billion.

What's more, they're doing this even though -- again, assuming Jonas' numbers are right -- SpaceX's AI division will be growing not just sales but profit many times faster than its Space and Connectivity divisions are growing.

Is that fair? Are investors assigning the "right" price to SpaceX AI?

Well, $162 billion might seem like a fair price to pay for an AI business currently generating negative EBITDA. It might even seem generous. But if two years of hypergrowth grow SpaceX's AI division to the point that it's generating 75% of SpaceX's profit, you'd expect investors would happily pay a much higher price for it. Accordingly, Jonas argues that SpaceX stock, which costs $140 today, could easily reach $300 per share within one year -- and potentially hit $600 in a bull-case scenario.

I remain skeptical. With all due respect to Jonas, I'm going to wait and see SpaceX's AI division prove that it can earn any profit at all before engaging in speculation about how fast it can grow its profit. Still, the possibility is intriguing.

If Jonas' estimates bear fruit, SpaceX stock could be a screaming buy.

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SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX | SPCX Price Prediction) has reportedly locked in more than $8 billion in contracts tied to the Pentagon’s Golden Dome missile-defense program, and by the accounting circulating in Washington, that gives the company roughly $8 billion.

That headline number sits on top of a company that just filed its first full quarter as a public firm. SpaceX reported second-quarter revenue of $7.814 billion, a 14.59% beat against consensus.

In the earnings report, president Gwynne Shotwell told analysts that the company won “more than $6 billion in U.S. contracts in Q2, supporting major Space Force programs.”

The transcript itself does not use the phrase Golden Dome. The $8 billion tally comes from reporting on Aug. 20, 2026 that stitches together disclosed awards and places SpaceX above the $6 billion the company confirmed on its call.

The story is fundamentally about scale. A single defense line item now carries a total larger than most contractors book in a full year, and it points to a company whose FY 2027 Golden Dome funding request from the Pentagon sits at $17.9 billion for one fiscal year.

Golden Dome Payday: $8 Billion and Counting The Golden Dome is described by the Department of War as “the Nation’s premier initiative to deter and defeat advanced missile threats.” That mission requires space-based sensors, secure communications, and a way to quickly launch and refresh hardware.

SpaceX happens to own every step of that supply chain. It launches satellites, manufactures them, and, through Starshield, sells secure connectivity to the government.

The Q2 disclosure fits that description cleanly. Shotwell said the awards support “mission-critical communications and sensing capabilities”, and she framed them as tranches rather than a one-time payment.

The company’s Enterprise & Government product line, which includes Starshield revenue, generated $1.806 billion in the quarter alone, up 108% year over year.

That is the base the Golden Dome contracts are designed to lift further. Total company backlog closed the quarter at $47.5 billion, although management declined to break out how much of that belongs to government work.

Market Reaction Since the Q2 Report Shares changed hands at $115.09 on the day the 8-K hit, Aug. 4, 2026. The market closed on Aug. 20 at $134.

Fuse pegs the move from the filing date at 6.92%, using a start price of $125.33. The one-month change through Aug. 20 sits at 8.47%.

The path was choppy. The stock is still down 16.74% from a June starting price of $160.95, and it fell 4.05% on Aug. 20 alone.

Retail sentiment tracks that unevenness. Reddit boards swung from bearish scores in the 20s and 30s around the earnings release to a very bullish 82 on WallStreetBets a few days later, with dilution and share unlocks running as parallel themes.

At $1.031 trillion in market capitalization, this is now as much a mega-cap defense supplier as a rocket company. The valuation reflects that dual identity, and Golden Dome is the piece that ties them together.

Bull Case: Why the Number Likely Grows The bull case begins with substitutability, or the lack of it. Golden Dome needs proliferated low-Earth-orbit sensors, hardened comms, and cheap access to space, and no rival can deliver all three at SpaceX’s cadence.

The company reported 78 total launches and 1,041 tons of mass to orbit in the first half of the year. No competitor is close to that operational scale.

Starship extends the moat. Management said the vehicle is designed to “quadruple payload capacity and reduce launch costs by 10 times compared to our Falcon 9 rocket”, and Shotwell expects flight cadence to reach “at least one flight a day” a year out.

Golden Dome funding levels support the case that these awards are early tranches. The Pentagon’s FY 2027 request alone earmarks $17.9 billion for Golden Dome, and that figure is designed to grow as the layered architecture builds out.

The qualifications matter. Shotwell was careful to note that “some of which we will have to compete”, and Pentagon budget documents show competing contractors like Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) and SciTec already active in missile warning and tracking. Political dependence is real, because Golden Dome funding runs through congressional reconciliation and appropriation processes that can shift with any administration.

Bottom Line for Long-Term Holders Retirement-focused investors can build a case around this contract stream without assuming SpaceX captures every dollar of Golden Dome. What they need is for the company to maintain its position as the default option for space-based defense infrastructure as the program scales, and the Q2 numbers suggest it is doing exactly that.

Enterprise & Government revenue growing 108% off a $1.8 billion quarterly base shows the trajectory. That growth was recorded before Golden Dome awards fully flowed through the income statement.

The risks belong on the same page. Starship is still burning cash, with Space segment adjusted EBITDA at a $205 million loss, AI capex hitting $15.83 billion in a single quarter, and the pending $60 billion Cursor acquisition raising integration questions.

The next catalyst worth watching is the Cursor close, expected in Q3 2026, alongside further Space Force award disclosures. If the $8 billion figure looks conservative twelve months from now, this quarter will read as the moment SpaceX became a defense prime with a rocket division.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

SpaceX SPCX shares gained 1.4% on Friday as investors weighed the rapid expansion of its Starlink satellite network, upcoming share unlocks and the company's significant capital spending requirements.

The stock had fallen 3% on Wednesday and declined 4.1% on Thursday as another 319 million shares held by employees, early investors and other insiders became eligible for trading.

SpaceX launched another 24 Starlink satellites from California on Tuesday, bringing the constellation closer to 11,000 spacecraft in low Earth orbit.

Tracking data from astronomer Jonathan McDowell showed around 10,979 Starlink satellites in orbit as of Aug. 19, with about 10,963 operational.

SpaceX has launched more than 12,700 Starlink satellites since 2019, although roughly 1,700 have since deorbited.

The network now represents nearly two-thirds of all active satellites orbiting Earth.

SpaceX has approval to launch between 15,000 and 19,000 Gen-1 and Gen-2 Starlink satellites by 2031.

The company has also sought approval for a next-generation constellation of up to 100,000 satellites.

CEO Elon Musk said earlier this month that the Starlink system could eventually exceed 100,000 satellites.

He has also said the space economy will be significantly larger than Goldman Sachs' current $1.8 trillion projection for 2035.

Starlink is already a major contributor to SpaceX's financial performance.

The company's Connectivity segment generated $4.3 billion in revenue during the second quarter of 2026, accounting for about 55% of SpaceX's total $7.8 billion revenue.

The segment generated $1.7 billion in operating profit, up 66% year over year.

The growth was supported by a doubling of subscribers to 12 million.

SpaceX aims for Starlink to eventually carry most of the world's internet traffic.

The company also sees potential applications in AI infrastructure, mobile connectivity and internet services for homes, businesses and governments.

Investors are also monitoring the impact of additional shares becoming available for trading.

The Aug. 20 unlock made up to 319 million restricted shares eligible for trading. The shares represented about 2.4% of SpaceX's outstanding stock and could increase the company's tradable float by around 20%.

Additional unlocks are scheduled through the rest of 2026, while Musk's large stake remains locked until June 2027.

Meanwhile, DZ Bank analyst Markus Leistner initiated coverage with a Sell rating and a $100 price target.

The bearish view contrasts with broader Wall Street sentiment, with about 75% of analysts covering SpaceX rating the stock Buy. The average analyst price target stands near $226.

The differing views partly reflect the scale of SpaceX's future investment requirements.

FactSet estimates SpaceX revenue could exceed $100 billion in 2027, compared with about $44 billion in 2026.

However, Wall Street projects roughly $800 billion in cumulative capital spending by the end of the decade.

Much of that spending is expected to support AI and communications infrastructure.

SpaceX currently operates about 1.4 gigawatts of computing capacity at two terrestrial data centers and aims to reach 10 gigawatts by the end of 2027.

For investors, the company's rapid Starlink growth offers significant revenue potential, but the scale of required investment and continued share unlocks remain important factors for the stock.

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DZ Bank initiated coverage of SpaceX with a Sell rating and a $100 price target on August 21, 2026. Against Thursday’s $134 close on a $1.03 trillion company, the target is a rare public bear call on a recently public mega cap, and it deserves a close look from long-term holders.

Ticker Company Firm Action Old Rating New Rating Old Target New Target SPCX SpaceX DZ Bank Initiation N/A Sell N/A $100 Analyst’s Case The DZ Bank Analyst Markus Leistner warned of “crash risk in the valuation orbit.” Capital expenditures reached $18.37 billion in a single quarter, with $15.83 billion directed to AI compute infrastructure, and management guided the next two quarters to a similar CapEx level. That buildout has to be powered, cooled, and networked by somebody, which is exactly why we rounded up seven suppliers behind the AI data-center boom in a free report here. Add the pending $60 billion Cursor acquisition expected to close in Q3 2026 and a $541 million net loss, and the bear case writes itself.

Company Snapshot SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX | SPCX Price Prediction) is a vertically integrated aerospace, telecommunications, and artificial intelligence company operating across Space, Connectivity, and AI segments. In its first public quarter, revenue reached $7.81 billion versus a $6.82 billion consensus, a 14.59% beat, with a loss per share of $0.09 against a $0.29 estimated loss. AI segment revenue grew 247% year over year, Connectivity revenue hit $4.29 billion, and Starlink subscribers doubled to 12.0 million. The company ended the quarter with $93.52 billion in cash and a $47.5 billion backlog.

Why the Move Matters Now SpaceX stock has been under pressure since its debut. Shares closed at $134 on August 20, 2026, down 16.74% from the June 12 close of $160.95, and opened Friday trading at $131.54. Float mechanics matter. A widely circulated r/stocks post flagged that “up to 911.5M shares held by employees and early investors become eligible to trade,” more than the roughly 639M shares sold in the IPO. “Less than 5% of the company was initially available to trade. That scarcity was a big part of the setup, and now it starts changing,” the author wrote. Against that supply backdrop, DZ Bank’s Sell initiation carries more weight than the isolated rating suggests.

What It Means for Your Portfolio For retirement-focused investors, the DZ Bank Sell initiation is a useful counterweight to the bullish narrative. The operational story is intact: management is projecting $100 billion of ARR by December 2026 and sees a path to $1 trillion in revenue by 2030. The risk is the price to get there. With CapEx guided to remain elevated, a $60 billion acquisition pending, and post-lockup supply hitting the market, the SpaceX thesis hinges on execution. The revised outlook warrants a closer look, even as near-term volatility remains a real risk.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX attempted to acquire AI coding startup Cognition as it works to catch up to OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google in the AI race, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Cognition CEO Scott Wu disputed the report soon after it published, writing on X that the story was inaccurate and that Cognition “is not for sale,” adding that the two companies haven’t been in talks.

The report comes a few days after SpaceX’s $60 billion acquisition of Cursor, another AI coding startup, whose deal closed last week. 

SpaceX acquired Musk’s AI company, xAI, earlier this year. It then went public in a blockbuster IPO in June, with its market capitalization rising to nearly $2.3 trillion at its peak.

SpaceX has sold investors on its AI ambitions, which include eventually building data centers in space. But the xAI business remains relatively early-stage and has fallen behind competitors.

It’s also had to contend with its chatbot Grok’s penchant for controversy, including last year’s “MechaHitler” incident and this year’s nonconsensual sexual imagery scandals, as it tries to win over enterprise customers.

Last week, Musk told SpaceX’s employees that in about “four or five years, AI will be 99% of the value” of the company, but achieving that feat will require SpaceX to pull in much more revenue from AI.

AI-assisted coding has emerged as one of the clearest ways to monetize the technology. Anthropic’s meteoric growth, fueled in large part by Claude Code, is proof of that. Bringing Cursor into the fold was part of that equation, and the companies were already working together before the acquisition closed. This month, Cursor and SpaceX jointly released Grok 4.6, a new model that scores higher on benchmarks for coding and complex multi-step agentic tasks. 

Adding Cognition and its coding agent Devin — along with an enterprise customer base that includes Mercedes-Benz, Citi, and Goldman Sachs — would have given SpaceX another way to deepen its push into AI coding and compete for enterprise customers. 

Bloomberg reports that the deal talks are no longer active, but that the companies are still discussing working together — potentially with Cognition using SpaceX’s computing capacity, which the company is selling to other AI players like Anthropic until it needs that capacity for itself. Wu didn’t address this specific claim in his denial.

Cognition remains one of the largest independent AI software coding startups that hasn’t yet been gobbled up by a major AI model maker. The company in late May raised a $1 billion round at a $25 billion post-money valuation, and Bloomberg reports it’s now in early talks for a new round of funding at a $40 billion valuation.

Cognition made headlines last year when it acquired the remaining assets of competitor Windsurf after Google DeepMind acqui-hired the startup’s CEO and top research in a $2.4 billion deal for talent and licensing rights.

After the merger, Cognition laid off 30 employees and offered buyouts to the remaining 200 Windsurf employees. Those who decided to stay faced strict operational expectations, like a more than 80-hour workweek and six days in the office.

That sort of wartime work ethic wouldn’t be out of place in a Musk company. Musk has said he works up to 120 hours a week and often sleeps on office or factory floors. 

SpaceX and Cognition did not respond to requests for comment.

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Rebecca Bellan is a senior reporter at TechCrunch where she covers the business, policy, and emerging trends shaping artificial intelligence. Her work has also appeared in Forbes, Bloomberg, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, and other publications.

You can contact or verify outreach from Rebecca by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at rebeccabellan.491 on Signal.

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SPCX buy on unlock + rebalance bid

Buy SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX). The August 6 unlock added massive supply yet the stock rallied (+6.1% day-of, +16% next session). That signals strong absorption from index/ETF demand. With another 319M shares becoming eligible Aug 20 and a Nasdaq-100 rebalance before Sept 21, passive flows can keep demand ahead of supply and extend the momentum into September.

Key Risk: The Aug 20 eligibility finally triggers real selling (insiders monetize) and the stock breaks the post-unlock support, proving buyers can’t absorb the float increase.

SPCX sell/short into valuation risk

Sell or short SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) into the September catalyst. Even if index buying happens, it doesn’t fix the valuation argument: Morningstar flags overvaluation, and the stock has been extremely volatile since the IPO. If the market has already priced “Nasdaq funds fuel the rally,” any supply wave (Aug 20) or rebalance disappointment can cause a sharp mean reversion.

Key Risk: Index/ETF demand overshoots expectations and keeps SPCX grinding higher through the rebalance, leaving valuation bears behind.

SpaceX stock NASDAQ:SPCX faces another major supply test on Thursday, but investors are already looking beyond the August lockup to a September catalyst.

Another 319 million shares are expected to become eligible for trading on August 20, following the release of 912 million shares on August 6.

Yet the first unlock failed to trigger the selloff many investors feared.

SpaceX rose 6.1% that day and nearly 16% in the following session, while shares have risen about 35% since the restrictions lifted.

The Nasdaq-100’s September quarterly rebalance is scheduled to take effect before trading begins on September 21.

SpaceX joined the Nasdaq-100 on July 7. JPMorgan estimated at the time that inclusion could attract roughly $4.3 billion in passive inflows from funds tracking the benchmark.

“Clearly, there’s a lot of demand; that’s why they fast-tracked the integration into the index,” Morningstar strategist Michael Field told Reuters. He also warned that Morningstar considered the shares overvalued.

The next question is whether SpaceX’s growing public float could increase its index representation.

Investor Tangerine Tan Capital calculates that SpaceX currently carries about a 1.16% Nasdaq-100 weight, well below the 4% to 5% allocation he believes its market value could justify without the float constraint.

As more insider shares become tradable, the investor expects index funds to increase their holdings around future rebalances.

“I am expecting a price increase around the time of the rebalancing,” Tangerine Tan Capital wrote.

The September thesis first has to survive Thursday.

About 319 million additional shares become eligible for trading, increasing the pool available to insiders and early investors.

Eligibility does not mean those holders will sell, but it creates another potential source of supply.

Research analyst Ed Elson expects “a lot of selling pressure” as early backers gain opportunities to monetise years of gains.

The August 6 unlock offered an encouraging precedent. More than 900 million shares became eligible, but SpaceX instead climbed 6.1% to $114.92. Elson suggested short sellers closing positions may have helped absorb the new supply.

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas was also bullish around that event. The Associated Press reported that Jonas viewed the unlock as a buying opportunity and believed SpaceX could reach $300 by mid-2027.

Any additional passive buying would not automatically make SpaceX fundamentally cheap.

The stock has remained highly volatile since its $135 IPO, climbing as high as $225.64 before falling below the offer price and subsequently recovering.

NYU professor and investor Scott Galloway told Business Insider this week that SpaceX remained “crazy overvalued,” arguing that its limited initial public float and rapid Nasdaq-100 inclusion had created unusually strong demand.

Shares in SpaceX Corp (NASDAQ:SPCX) are poised to open lower on Tuesday as investors brace for a fresh wave of insider stock hitting the market.

About 319 million shares held by employees and early backers become eligible for sale on 20 August, the latest tranche to escape the lock-up that followed the rocket maker's record June flotation.

The stock was trading down 2.5% ahead of the opening bell in New York.

That marked a reversal from Monday, when the shares climbed almost 6%.

The rally came as a run of regulatory filings showed more than 1,500 institutions had built positions in Elon Musk's space and satellite company, alongside a clutch of bullish analyst notes.

Ownership is unusually concentrated, however, with just 23 investors controlling more than 80% of the reported shares.

Alphabet, the Google parent, is the largest holder at 551.2 million shares, followed by Fidelity on 302.6 million.

Thursday's release is the second big supply event in a fortnight.

An earlier expiry on 6 August freed roughly 912 million shares, more than doubling the pool of stock available to trade.

That unlock had been widely feared, yet the anticipated flood of selling failed to materialise and the shares rose instead.

The next batch is seen as a sterner test, since early investors can now take profits at a much higher price.

SpaceX sank to an all-time low of $104.83 on 3 August, but has since recovered to around $146, back above its $135 float price.

The staggered releases run through the rest of 2026 and into 2027.

Musk's own stake, of roughly 6.4 billion shares, stays locked until June 2027, the single largest overhang still to come.

SpaceX Corp (NASDAQ:SPCX) could be on the cusp of a major growth inflection for its Starlink satellite broadband business, with UBS arguing that the company's next-generation satellites and an unconventional ground-network strategy could significantly expand its reach.

Analysts expect SpaceX shares to continue trading on demand for tokens, reflecting the leverage it sees in the company as both a major cloud provider and a frontier-model player.

Over the medium term, however, the investment bank believes Starship's ability to accelerate Starlink's expansion could become an important source of value.

Shares of SpaceX gained 5.6% on Monday.

UBS expects Starlink growth to accelerate once SpaceX reaches critical mass with its V3 fixed broadband satellites, which it expects to happen sometime next year.

The picture is more complicated for mobile services. SpaceX's V2 mobile low-Earth-orbit constellation cannot provide coverage in some of the most challenging environments, including dense urban locations and the interiors of office buildings and multi-dwelling units.

SpaceX has said it plans to address those gaps by incorporating small terrestrial radios, known as femtocells, into its next-generation Starlink terminals.

UBS said SpaceX’s femtocell strategy hinges on securing low-band spectrum and achieving sufficient deployment density.

Frequencies below 1GHz are attractive for their broad coverage, with potential sources including spectrum held by EchoStar, NextNav and Anterix, while UHF spectrum could offer a longer-term opportunity. However, reallocating broadcast spectrum would likely take years.

Femtocells typically cover 10 to 50 metres, with range dependent on spectrum, power and antenna gain. Their effectiveness will ultimately depend on the number and geographic distribution of Starlink subscribers, as the devices would be built into next-generation terminals.

UBS currently models around 3 million US Starlink subscribers, rising to 6 million by the end of 2027 and 20 million by the end of 2031.

UBS continues to believe SpaceX's preferred route for US mobile services would be an MVNO agreement with an existing wireless carrier. If such a deal does not materialize, however, the bank expects SpaceX could pursue a hybrid network combining Starlink satellites with ground infrastructure, including towers where femtocells cannot provide sufficient coverage.

Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX -0.91%) generated $18.7 billion in revenue in 2025. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk just predicted that the company will hit $100 billion in annual recurring revenue (ARR) by the end of this year, and $1 trillion in revenue by 2030. That would be a more than a 50-fold increase in five years, mainly on the back of artificial intelligence (AI) data center sales.

No company has ever generated $1 trillion in revenue in a single year. How likely is it that SpaceX can achieve this number by 2030? Here's my honest take on whether SpaceX stock is a buy today.

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Less space, more AI SpaceX just went completed the largest initial public offering (IPO) in history. The company is known today for space services, but it's transitioning quickly into an AI infrastructure business. Capital expenditures were $19 billion across the business last quarter, mainly attributable to building data centers for AI.

Musk, unsurprisingly, is being aggressive in building out data centers to serve the AI market. The company has signed deals with the likes of Alphabet and Anthropic that could get ARR up to $100 billion by December, Musk said on the company's first earnings call since the IPO earlier this month.

By the end of next year, Musk expects to bring on between 15 and 20 gigawatts (GW) of electric power capacity for SpaceX's current and future AI data centers. With the cost of bringing on a gigawatt of capacity approaching $50 billion, it will take enormous capital spending for SpaceX to deliver on its plans.

Since AI compute is a hot commodity at the moment, SpaceX can sign lucrative deals with third parties to lease out this computing power, even if those third parties are competitors to the company's own AI software services, such as Anthropic.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Image source: The White House.

Long-term, SpaceX is developing a data center concept that will operate in Earth orbit to save on power costs by using solar arrays outside Earth's atmosphere. Along with the terrestrial data centers, Musk and SpaceX believe there will be enough demand for AI software to reach $1 trillion in revenue by 2030. That's an audacious plan, to say the least.

Risks and profit margins Some revenue will come from other services provided by SpaceX, such as its Starlink internet and rocket launch contracts for third parties. However, if revenue hits $1 trillion in 2030, the vast majority of SpaceX's business will be AI data center contracts.

Right now, SpaceX is getting a nice level of revenue from such infrastructure deals, and likely with good margins. However, there is a risk that the AI spending boom could turn into a bust if demand for AI services does not meet these projections. This could lead SpaceX to build a gargantuan number of AI data centers as demand dries up.

SPCX Capital Expenditures (Quarterly) data by YCharts.

Today, SpaceX trades at a market cap of $1.9 trillion. In an ultra-bullish scenario, this $1 trillion in cloud computing revenue by 2030 could translate into hundreds of billions in earnings, at least compared to the competition, whose profit margins hover at about 30%. That might make the stock cheap for anyone buying right now.

However, investors should be skeptical of Musk's promises, especially when it means revenue increasing 50-fold in five years. Musk is notorious for making financial projections or product launches that only materialize years after his deadlines, and I think this $1 trillion revenue projection by 2030 is one of them.

Avoid buying SpaceX stock for this reason.

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In this segment from The AI Investor Podcast, hosts Eric Bleeker and Austin Smith walk through a new portfolio addition tied directly to the SpaceX (Nasdaq: SPCX) and hyperscaler data center power buildout. The pick is Solaris Energy Infrastructure (NYSE:SEI), a behind-the-meter power provider that Bleeker sized as a $10,000 position, or about 1% of the million dollars he’s investing publicly in the AI Investor Portfolio. The discussion also revisits Power Solutions International (NASDAQ:PSIX) as evidence that supply-constrained power infrastructure names are already being repriced by the market.

Watch the Full Segment
You can watch the full podcast segment below, where Bleeker and Smith break down the Solaris thesis and how it fits into the broader SpaceX data center spending story.

If the above YouTube link doesn’t work, you can copy and paste the segment URL int your browser: ttps://www.youtube.com/embed/98dk_2os6sg?si=QNBm6qBDTs2gyES4&start=1663

About This Segment

This is a segment from The AI Investor Podcast episode titled A New Portfolio Add In Our Most Important Episode Of The Year, hosted by Eric Bleeker and Austin Smith.
Bleeker added Solaris Energy Infrastructure to the portfolio as a $10,000 position, citing its existing SpaceX relationship and its gas turbine fleet used for rapid behind-the-meter power at data centers.
Bleeker noted SEI is still trading roughly 30% below recent highs, with decade-power contracts signed with 2 data centers and 2 more coming in September, plus long-term contracts with 3 leading technology companies, all developed in the past 6 months.

Why Solaris Energy Infrastructure Made the Cut
Solaris already has a working relationship with SpaceX and deploys mobile gas turbines that can be dropped in place to power data centers behind the meter, sidestepping the multi-year grid interconnection queues that are choking new AI capacity. That practical, real-world plumbing is why Bleeker framed Solaris as the cleanest way to get exposure to SpaceX’s intention to spend $300 billion to $500 billion building out six to 10 gigawatts of capacity by the end of 2027.

Recent contract wins shows Solaris has momentum. In Q2 2026, Solaris reported adjusted EPS of $0.39 versus $0.23 estimated and revenue of $219.4 million, up 31.5% year over year. The company disclosed an expanded Hatchbo agreement for a full turnkey ~660 MW power plant with a tenor of up to 18 years to serve AI workloads, along with three long-term contract expansions expected to add more than $100 million in annual adjusted EBITDA. Management raised the Q3 2026 adjusted EBITDA outlook to $90 to $105 million and established a Q4 2026 range of $100 to $120 million.

CEO Bill Zartler summarized the momentum on the earnings report: “We are executing, expanding our contracted scope and continuing to build Solaris into a proven power and infrastructure business well positioned to serve our customers.”

A Rising Price, But Still 30% Below Recent Highs
Bleeker made a point about the entry price. SEI closed at $63.30 on August 14, well off the 52-week high of $86.19. Over the past three months, the stock is down 19.31%, even as year-to-date performance stands at +38.23% and the one-year return is +133.56%. That drawdown from the highs is what Bleeker referenced as the roughly 30% pullback, giving the portfolio a chance to enter a name that had otherwise been running.

Sell-side sentiment is positive. Alpha Vantage lists an analyst target price of $94.41, with 5 strong buys, 8 buys, and 1 hold. Forward valuation is rich, which reflects the growth curve baked in from the hyperscaler contract flow.

PSIX as the Proof of Concept
Bleeker used Power Solutions International to illustrate how fast the market is repricing behind-the-meter suppliers when SpaceX-related demand shows up. He cited the 22% rally in one week as a signal that hyperscalers and SpaceX will chase any available supply to outpace competitors. PSIX shares closed at $40.54 on August 14, with the one-month move at +21.16%, even as the stock remains down 50.08% over the past year.

PSIX’s Q2 2026 earnings report backs the narrative. Adjusted EPS came in at $0.78 versus consensus $0.27, revenue was $152.54 million versus $133.95 million estimated, and gross margin expanded roughly 420 basis points to 27.1%. New CEO Kenneth Li told investors: “Looking ahead, demand for our data center power solutions remains strong. Based on our current production schedule, we expect second-half sales to exceed first-half sales as larger Power Systems orders move into production.”

The Broader Setup: Bloom, Nebius, and $20 Billion per Gigawatt
Bleeker also pointed to Bloom Energy surging 15% after Nebius moved power at a New Jersey site to Bloom as another data point in the same trend. Later in the podcast, Bleeker referenced that Nebius earning showed compute deals being signed at $20 to $25 billion per gigawatt. Those figures explain why the race is on to build new capacity as quickly as possible.

Subscribe to The AI Investor Podcast
If you enjoyed this segment, subscribe to The AI Investor Podcast for weekly breakdowns of the stocks, suppliers, and infrastructure names powering the AI buildout. New episodes are available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast providers. Recent episodes are linked below. We’ve recommended more than 50 stocks (for free!) on the podcast, and our average recommendation is up 147%. Don’t miss out on the biggest news in the investing world and new stock recommendations each week!.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

The SpaceX logo in this illustration taken June 11, 2026. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

Aug 14 (Reuters) - Tiger Global Management trimmed several of its Big Tech stakes, exited Netflix (NFLX.O), opens new tab, and took positions in Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O), opens new tab ​and SpaceX (SPCX.O), opens new tab during the second quarter, according to regulatory ‌disclosures filed Friday.

Here are more details from its quarterly 13-F filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission:

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The hedge fund cut its Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab holdings by ​45.4% to 5.81 million shares as of June 30 ​from the end of March, and its Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab stake by 6.8% ⁠to 11.20 million shares.

It trimmed its Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab stake by 9.3% ​to 2.27 million shares and its Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab position by 3.2% to 9.68 million ​shares.

The hedge fund reduced its holding in Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab by 8.5% to 2.82 million.

The filings showed that Tiger Global sold its entire 2.44 million-share Netflix position, ​valued at about $234.5 million, at the end of the first ​quarter.

The investment firm also cut its Broadcom (AVGO.O), opens new tab stake by about 51% to ‌1.75 ⁠million shares and reduced its Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing holding by 12.3% to 4.88 million American depositary shares.

Meanwhile, it more than doubled its stake in Intel (INTC.O), opens new tab to 4.25 million shares from 1.64 million shares ​in the prior ​quarter.

It also established ⁠a 674,727-share position in Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O), opens new tab, valued at roughly $392 million as of June 30, and ​reported a 375,000-share stake in SpaceX, valued at ​about $64.1 million.

13-F ⁠filings provide a snapshot of certain U.S.-listed equity holdings at the end of a quarter but do not disclose subsequent trading, short ⁠positions ​or the fund's full portfolio.

The changes ​in holdings are as of June 30, compared with the prior quarter ended March ​31.

Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Diti Pujara

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Last month, Elon Musk took to X to tell the short-sellers betting against his rocket company, Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX +9.65%), that their "survival probability" is "very low."

And after its first quarterly report was released last week, a whole lot of investors think he's right. The company gave bulls plenty to like, with revenue up 92% year over year (YoY), the doubling of Starlink subscriptions, and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) nearly tripling.

But dig a little deeper into the numbers, and I think there are plenty of reasons to think the short-sellers -- who profit when share prices fall -- are right.

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SpaceX's cash burn is staggering SpaceX generated $3.5 billion in operating cash flow through the first six months of 2026 -- impressive, until you see that the company made $28.5 billion in capital expenditures (capex).

Free cash flow (FCF) was roughly negative $25 billion in just six months. And that actually understates the economic investment somewhat, because another roughly $3.9 billion of capital expenditures were financed rather than paid in cash.

Now, to be fair, this is a company in the middle of an enormous build-out, and heavy spending today can mean big payoffs down the road -- in theory. Spending at this pace and on this scale puts a whole lot of pressure on those investments to pay off quickly, and, at least for the spending on AI, there's a real question of whether they will pay off at all.

One customer accounts for nearly 20% of revenue One unnamed customer accounted for 19.5% of SpaceX's entire Q2 revenue and the lion's share of its AI revenue. That could be a serious problem if the customer backs out, especially given that AI is where SpaceX is spending lavishly -- $23.6 billion of its total capex went into AI alone.

Image source: Getty Images.

Although the customer is unnamed, it is very likely that it's Anthropic, the maker of Claude. The deal to lease computing capacity from SpaceX's xAI is cancellable by either side with just 90 days' notice after an initial ramping period. That is not the kind of agreement you want when you're committing billions to service it.

We've already seen how loose these arrangements can be. Musk himself previously clarified that one heavily touted lease was initially just for 180 days, despite the potential for a much longer relationship.

Starlink's hidden problem: falling revenue per user Starlink is still SpaceX's best business, generating $4.3 billion of Q2 revenue and $1.7 billion in operating income.

But I think investors have been ignoring a problem: Average revenue per user (ARPU) has been falling. The figure came in at just $66 per month, and though that's little changed from the previous quarter, it's down from $85 a year earlier.

ARPU decline is fine when you have subscriber growth to compensate -- and make no mistake, Starlink very much does at this point -- but as time goes on and more of the market is captured, especially in more developed nations, I think ARPU could start sliding even faster even as growth slows.

Is SpaceX stock overvalued? Now, I'm not advocating that you short SpaceX stock -- that's a very dangerous maneuver that can easily backfire if you're wrong -- but I am saying that short-sellers will ultimately be proven right. I believe that SpaceX stock is overvalued and that the top-line growth is overshadowing some serious flaws beneath the surface.

And, remember, during the next year, nearly $6 billion of shares owned by early SpaceX  investors and employees will be unlocked and available for sale on public markets. Even a sliver of those insiders deciding to sell could put pressure on the stock price.

The silhouette of Elon Musk and Starlink logo are seen in this illustration taken June 11, 2026. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

HANOI, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Starlink, the satellite internet service operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX, has ​begun accepting orders in Vietnam, according to the ‌company's local website.

Households are now able to place deposits through its website at starlink.com.vn for a residential service ​plan starting at 1.13 million dong ($43) ​per month, plus hardware costs of 8.66 ⁠million dong.

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The minimum monthly subscription for ​corporate clients is 1.48 million dong.

Vietnam becomes the sixth ​Southeast Asian market where Starlink services are available, joining Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and East Timor, according ​to Starlink's coverage map.

Vietnam's government announced ​in March 2025 that it would allow SpaceX to ‌launch ⁠Starlink on a trial basis, waiving foreign ownership limits for the service.

Authorities have capped the number of subscribers at 600,000 during ​the trial ​period, which ⁠runs through the end of 2030.

The service is operated by ​SpaceX's local unit, Starlink Services Vietnam, ​which ⁠was established in September 2025 with charter capital of 30 billion dong ($1.1 million).

Vietnam has ⁠authorised ​four Starlink ground gateway ​stations, according to the government.

Reporting by Khanh Vu; Additional reporting ​by Phuong Nguyen; Editing by David Stanway

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Elon Musk said SpaceX employees would "effectively be the parents of the AI." Fabrice Coffrini / AFP via Getty Images SpaceX is joining the new AI gold rush: employee data.

In a company all-hands, Elon Musk told staff that SpaceX plans to train its Grok AI on the company's data, including contributions from staff. This type of data has become a valuable commodity for tech companies training AI agents to use computers and perform real-world tasks.

"We're going to be training Grok on the sum total of all SpaceX information," Musk told employees in a video of the all-hands posted on X on Tuesday.

"So in a way, it will be trained on you," he added.

The world's richest man reiterated concerns he has been expressing for years about the risks of superintelligent AI that is not aligned with humanity's goals.

Musk suggested that training it on data from SpaceX employees — who he described as "a collection of some of the very best humans on Earth" — could imbue future models with what he considers desirable values.

"You will effectively be the parents of the AI. It will inherit your thoughts and ideas and beliefs, and I think that's a good thing," the SpaceX CEO said.

It is not clear what employee data SpaceX is planning to use to train its AI models, or how. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

Musk previously raised the prospect of training Grok on SpaceX data in the company's recent earnings call, and the rocket maker is not the only Big Tech giant eyeing employee data in the quest to improve AI models.

Having exhausted most of the readily available training data on the internet, AI companies are increasingly turning to data from employees and other sources, such as factory and sensor data, to improve their models' ability to navigate real-world tasks.

Meta launched a new initiative in April to collect employee keystrokes and mouse movements as training data to improve the company's AI models.

The plan sparked intense backlash from staff and was paused in June after private employee conversations and performance data were made available across the entire company, Business Insider exclusively reported.

Grok Bot SpaceX, which absorbed Musk's AI startup xAI months before going public in a record-breaking IPO, is attempting to catch up in the AI race. Grok has lagged behind cutting-edge models from OpenAI and Anthropic on some major benchmarks.

SpaceX's $60 billion acquisition of the AI coding startup Cursor is expected to close in the coming months. On Tuesday, SpaceX launched Grok Bot, an AI agent that is designed to perform tasks on a computer.

The company says Grok Bots can sign into apps and websites, draft emails, write code, and perform a wide range of other tasks autonomously. Training AI models to perform these kinds of agentic tasks often requires specially curated computer use data.

In the all-hands, Musk encouraged all SpaceX employees to use the company's AI and "make it better." The billionaire said that SpaceX's mission to dominate AI on Earth and in space would ultimately lead to soaring profits, a golden age of civilization, and teased holidays on the moon for employees.

"Anyone at SpaceX who wants to go to the moon or Mars will be able to go in the future. You have my word," Musk said.

Do you work at SpaceX and have thoughts about the company using employee data to train its AI models? Get in touch with this reporter at tcarter.41 on Signal or [email protected]. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

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Tom Carter You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.

Elon Musk SpaceX AI More

SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) held its first earnings call as a newly public company last week, and the stock fell roughly 14% following the report as investors zeroed in on higher-than-expected AI capex. 

SPCX stock is moving. See the chart and price action here.  Cathie Wood‘s ARK Invest sees the selloff differently. Daniel Maguire, ARK’s research analyst covering autonomous technology and robotics, argued the market reaction was short-term and overlooked the $28.5 trillion total addressable market SpaceX outlined in its S-1 filing.

AI Buildout Maguire’s research centers on the company’s compute buildout. SpaceX plans to scale terrestrial compute from about 2 gigawatts by year-end to a range of 5 to 10 gigawatts by the end of next year, with management pointing toward the higher end of that range. 

Payback periods under a year and monetization estimates of $30 billion to $50 billion per gigawatt support the case, according to ARK, for the accelerated investment behind SpaceX’s target of $1 trillion in revenue by 2030. 

Natural gas turbines may bridge the power gap ahead of solar scaling, a strategy tied to CEO Elon Musk‘s acquisition of gas turbine company New APR Energy.

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StarlinkStarlink remains central to the growth story beyond AI. Starship’s Flight 14, targeted for late August, will deploy Starlink V3 satellites capable of roughly 20 times the bandwidth of the Falcon 9 V2 generation. 

SpaceX also revealed plans for a distributed network of femtocell-like stations built into Starlink dishes, positioning the company to compete directly with AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) and T-Mobile US, Inc. (NASDAQ:TMUS). 

Rocket ReusabilityFull reusability represents the other major catalyst ARK is tracking. SpaceX intends to attempt catching its upper-stage rocket during Flight 14, pending regulatory approval. 

A successful catch would mark a step toward full reusability, which ARK’s research suggests could push launch costs from around $1,000 per kilogram today to below $100 per kilogram at scale. 

Costs at that level, per ARK’s modeling based on Wright’s Law, could make orbital data centers economically viable. Timelines for reaching that scale remain uncertain given the number of variables involved.

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ARK’s TakeawaysInvestors reacted to near-term spending figures. ARK is watching the longer arc: compute scale, Starlink expansion and reusability progress that management laid out on the call. Starship’s Flight 14 later this month stands as the next milestone in that trajectory.

SPCX Stock Price Activity: SpaceX shares were down 0.14% at $132.92 on Monday, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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SpaceX stock NASDAQ:SPCX is entering the week with a different tone after Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest bought post-earnings weakness just as one of the stock’s biggest technical overhangs began to ease.

ARK bought 114,815 SpaceX shares through the ARK Innovation ETF on August 7, worth about $13.2 million.

SpaceX surged 15.83% that day to $133.11, leaving it just below its $135 IPO price.

ARK’s timing suggests Wood sees the recent weakness as a buying opportunity, with the post-earnings sell-off and lock-up pressure potentially creating the conditions for a stronger recovery if SpaceX’s growth story stays intact.

SpaceX’s first earnings report as a listed company showed strong growth, but one spending dominated the reaction.

Second-quarter revenue jumped 92% from a year earlier to $7.8 billion, while the company posted a $541 million net loss, or 9 cents a share, narrower than analysts expected.

Total capital expenditure reached $18.4 billion, including roughly $15.8 billion tied to AI infrastructure.

The shares sank nearly 14% on August 5 as investors questioned how quickly that spending would translate into cash flow.

ARK bought after that shock. Argus Research analyst Steven Silver upgraded SpaceX to Buy from Hold on August 7, setting a $160 price target.

TipRanks reported that Silver called the quarter “strong operational performance” and said the company’s “robust growth outlook” outweighed concern over higher AI spending.

For Wood, the wager appears simple: the spending hurting the stock today may be building the businesses investors value tomorrow.

The timing of ARK’s purchase matters because August 6 had been viewed as a pressure point.

About 911.5 million SpaceX shares became eligible for trading as the first major insider lock-up expired, more than doubling the previous float.

Instead of collapsing under new supply, the stock rose 6.1% to $114.92 on Thursday before Friday’s 15.83% surge.

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas described the expiry as an opportunity to buy the stock cheaply.

Jonas sees SpaceX reaching $300 by mid-2027.

Bernstein took that view after earnings. A team led by Douglas Harned maintained an Outperform rating and $239 target, telling Business Insider it saw nothing fundamentally negative in the report.

Wall Street sees upside, but capex remains the testThe bullish case now rests on whether SpaceX can turn its investment programme into faster revenue growth.

Oppenheimer maintained an Outperform rating and $250 target after earnings.

The firm brought forward its estimate for SpaceX to reach $1 trillion in annual revenue to 2032, citing faster AI build-out and monetisation, while acknowledging elevated capex remains a major concern.

Bank of America kept its Buy rating and $235 target, forecasting about $24.5 billion of AI revenue in 2026 and saying it had become more positive on SpaceX’s positioning across key markets.

Starlink adds another pillar. William Blair analyst Louie DiPalma highlighted third-generation satellites, which SpaceX says should provide roughly ten times the capacity of earlier versions.

The caution comes from Piper Sandler. The firm kept a Neutral rating and cut its target to $140, pointing to future lock-ups, rising 2027 capex and uncertainty around cancellable AI cloud contracts.

Key Takeaways SPCX fell 24.5% in a month even as Q2 revenues surged 91.9% and its per-share loss narrowed sharply.Starlink subscribers doubled to 12 million, lifting Connectivity revenue 65.8% and operating income 79.4%.AI revenue jumped 247.5%, but heavy capex, operating losses and Starship execution risks weigh on the setup. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SPCX - Free Report) shares have fallen 24.5% in the past month even as the company posted rapid second-quarter growth across its three operating segments. The sell-off has reset the share price, but not the investment debate.

Starlink is profitable and AI revenues are expanding quickly. Heavy capital spending, reported losses, Starship execution requirements and a demanding valuation keep the risk-reward balanced.

SpaceX Growth Signals Remain Strong Beneath the SlideSecond-quarter 2026 revenues surged 91.9% year over year to $7.81 billion, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 16.3%. The loss of 9 cents per share was 73.5% narrower than a year earlier and beat the consensus loss estimate of 26 cents.

Growth was broad. Connectivity remained the largest revenue contributor, AI grew the fastest and Space benefited from a more favorable customer launch mix. Consolidated operating loss narrowed to $143 million from $970 million.

Starlink Gives SPCX a Profitable Growth EngineStarlink subscribers doubled year over year to 12 million, helping Connectivity revenues climb 65.8% to $4.29 billion. Operating income rose 79.4% to $1.66 billion, producing a 38.6% operating margin. Adjusted EBITDA reached $2.60 billion.

Consumer revenues increased 44.4% to $2.49 billion and Enterprise & Government revenues more than doubled to $1.81 billion. Connectivity remains the company’s only segment-level source of operating income, giving Starlink a distinct role within the portfolio.

AI Upside Comes With SPCX Spending PressureAI revenues jumped 247.5% to $2.56 billion, driven largely by new cloud-services agreements. Segment adjusted EBITDA swung to positive $1.15 billion from a $276 million loss a year earlier, but the segment still posted a $1.26 billion operating loss under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

AI accounted for $15.83 billion of SpaceX’s $18.37 billion in second-quarter capital expenditures. Management expects total capital spending in each of the next two quarters to remain near the second-quarter level, keeping capital efficiency central to returns.

Starship Keeps SpaceX's Execution Risk ElevatedTwo successful Starship V3 flights in the 90 days before the second-quarter call moved the program forward. Upcoming milestones include deploying V3 Starlink satellites to operational orbit and attempting catches of the vehicle stages, with some steps still subject to regulatory approval.

Starship is designed to quadruple payload capacity and reduce launch costs tenfold versus Falcon 9. Delays in reusability, regulatory clearance or flight cadence could slow launch, Connectivity and future AI deployment plans at the same time.

Valuation Could Limit SPCX's Rebound CaseSPCX trades at 335.4X enterprise value to EBITDA versus 7.2X for its industry, while its 11.8X price-to-book multiple compares with 1.7X for the industry. The wide gaps raise the importance of converting elevated investment into more consistent returns.

Rocket Lab Corporation (RKLB - Free Report) provides launch services and space systems, making it relevant to SpaceX’s launch exposure. AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (ASTS - Free Report) is building space-based cellular broadband, offering context for satellite connectivity. Neither captures SpaceX’s combined launch, broadband and AI mix, which limits clean peer comparisons.

SPCX Signals Favor Patience After the PullbackAfter the pullback, SPCX still presents a balanced setup rather than a clear-cut bargain. Rapid growth remains evident, but valuation, capital intensity and execution are meaningful offsets.

SPCX currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), a VGM Score of D, Value Score of F, Growth Score of C and Momentum Score of A. The favorable Momentum Score contrasts with weak value and combined VGM characteristics, while the Hold rank supports patience rather than treating the decline alone as a buying signal.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Jim Cramer is telling investors to consider buying one of the market’s most battered recent IPOs for people who may not need the money for decades: their children.

SpaceX stock NASDAQ:SPCX has nearly halved from its June peak as investors question the sums Elon Musk plans to spend on artificial-intelligence infrastructure.

The stock rebounded 6.1% to $114.92 on Thursday as 911.5 million insider shares became eligible for trading, but remained below its $135 IPO price.

Cramer’s argument on CNBC is deliberately long-term.

Starlink, Starship, AI and orbital computing could become businesses whose scale cannot be judged from the next earnings report. The harder question is why investors should buy that future now.

SpaceX’s first public earnings showed why the long horizon matters.

Second-quarter revenue rose about 90% from a year earlier to $7.8 billion, while the company posted a $541 million net loss.

Capital expenditure reached $18.4 billion, with AI infrastructure accounting for much of the increase.

The investment case rests on several businesses developing together, like Starlink becoming a larger communications platform, Starship cutting launch costs, AI services generating revenue and Musk eventually commercialising computing infrastructure in orbit.

Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating and $250 target after earnings, despite calling elevated capital spending a major concern.

Its analysts now expect SpaceX to reach $1 trillion in annual revenue by 2032, three years earlier than previously forecast, arguing that the company has historically excelled at execution.

Bank of America maintained a Buy rating, $235 target and expects SpaceX’s AI operation to generate about $24.5 billion of revenue in 2026.

The bank noted that the second-quarter report made it more positive on the company’s positioning.

Morgan Stanley retained an Overweight rating and $300 target. It raised its 2026 revenue forecast to $45 billion to $48 billion and expects $91 billion to $102 billion the following year.

Bernstein analysts led by Douglas Harned said they saw nothing fundamentally negative in the earnings report, suggesting the insider-share unlock probably contributed to the sell-off.

Thursday’s rebound supported that view. SpaceX rose even as more than 900 million shares became eligible for sale, suggesting part of the feared supply pressure was already priced in.

The bullish forecasts come with extraordinary spending assumptions.

Morgan Stanley lifted its capital-expenditure estimate to $64 billion for 2026 and $163 billion for 2027 as SpaceX accelerates its computing buildout.

Revenue growth may therefore remain accompanied by heavy financing needs for years.

Piper Sandler kept a Neutral rating and cut its target to $140, warning that lockup expirations could remain a valuation headwind until summer 2027.

It also noted that lucrative AI-cloud contracts can be cancelled, making their staying power difficult to assess.

Morningstar analyst Nicolas Owens offers the hardest challenge to Cramer’s thesis.

He values SpaceX at $62 a share and argues that the market price assumes highly optimistic outcomes for rapid Starship reusability and orbital data centres.

• SpaceX stock is feeling bearish pressure. What’s behind SPCX decline?

According to the company’s second-quarter filing, one customer accounted for 18.3% of total revenue across all three operating segments. In contrast, a second customer accounted for 19.5% of revenue in the AI segment.

SpaceX Q2 Earnings Release

Together, those customers accounted for the equivalent of 37.8% of the company’s quarterly revenue, although SpaceX did not identify either customer.

The filing also noted that the AI customer was below the 10% reporting threshold a year earlier, suggesting it has become a much more significant contributor to SpaceX’s business over the past year.

SpaceX AI Revenue Depends on a Handful of CustomersThe disclosures underscore both the strength and the concentration of SpaceX’s AI momentum. Landing multi-billion-dollar cloud agreements has accelerated growth, but it also means a relatively small number of customers currently account for a meaningful share of revenue.

Earlier this week, SpaceX disclosed that it had signed $14.1 billion in contracted cloud services agreements, including a previously undisclosed $6.7 billion contract with a single customer, reinforcing how a handful of large AI customers are helping shape the company’s near-term financial performance.

Photo: Shutterstock

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Elon Musk is the CEO of SpaceX. Fabrice Coffrini / AFP via Getty Images Elon Musk issued a jaw-dropping revenue forecast, ridiculed the ease of building data centers compared to rockets, and envisioned factories on the Moon during SpaceX's first earnings call on Tuesday.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO — who is well-known for his grandiose predictions — also touted Starlink's potential for global domination, and predicted AI will become dramatically more advanced by the end of next year.

Here are Musk's five most interesting comments during SpaceX's inaugural earnings call after its blockbuster market debut in June.

1. Rocketing revenueMusk told Wall Street analysts that SpaceX's internal projections have it reaching $1 trillion in revenue in 2030, instead of 2031 as it had forecast before its IPO. He also said there's a "nonzero chance of that being in 2029."

To put that in perspective, Walmart and Amazon, which generate more revenue than any other public companies, reported net sales of $706 billion and $717 billion, respectively, in their last full financial years.

SpaceX generated $12.5 billion in first-half revenue, a 54% increase from the same period in 2025.

From fully autonomous vehicles to the first crewed mission to Mars, Musk has a long history of setting ambitious timelines for milestones, only to fail to meet them.

He acknowledged back in 2018 that he's "typically optimistic" about when things will occur, but added that what he predicts "pretty much always happens, but not exactly on the timeframe."

2. Data centers vs. rockets

SpaceX's background in rockets makes data centers a breeze, Musk said on the call.  Steve Nesius/Reuters Musk said that building data centers "ain't rocket science," whereas building rockets is extremely challenging because they "desperately want to blow themselves into tiny pieces."

He quipped that tasking rocket engineers to construct data centers was "kind of ridiculous, frankly," and represented a "trivial problem" for them.

Musk quipped that it was like the "New York Yankees going in and playing a Little League team."

Big Tech companies, including Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, and Oracle, are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into building data centers to power the AI revolution.

The immense demand for microchips, power, and water has strained supply chains and pressured energy grids and reservoirs.

3. Linking up the worldMusk said it's "not out of the question" that Starlink will eventually deliver a "majority of the world's internet, at least in countries where we're allowed to operate, which is the vast majority of countries."

In another example of his famously optimistic timelines, Musk added that it won't be in the "infinity future" but rather in "less than 10 years."

Starlink, the satellite-communications arm of SpaceX, has emerged as a key provider of internet to planes, ships, and far-flung locales.

However, it has yet to meaningfully disrupt the core urban broadband businesses of established internet providers such as T-Mobile and Verizon.

4. Mission to the MoonMusk predicted that SpaceX will build "factories on the Moon," and "robots will be helpful with that."

He acknowledged that "sounds like super sci-fi right now," adding it might seem "totally nuts" but "you can probably scale to 1,000 times the economy of Earth in terms of intelligence launched into space, but probably maybe even 1 million times."

5. Getting smarterMusk hailed the launch of Claude 4.5 last September as "one of the milestones and a credit to Anthropic."

He said it was a "shock to the system" how good the AI model was.

Musk pointed to the immense progress in AI over the past two years, saying models from two summers ago feel like they "should be in a museum."

Based on recent rates of improvement, Musk said that by the end of next year, it's "not clear to me that there's anything that — digital at least — that AI won't be able to do."

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Theron Mohamed You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.

Theron Mohamed is a London-based correspondent on the Trending team at Business Insider. His coverage spans finance, investing, wealth, markets, and the economy.Theron joined BI in 2019 as a reporter at Markets Insider and rose to the rank of correspondent before moving to the Trending team in 2024. He previously covered tech, media, and telecom stocks for Investors Chronicle magazine and had a brief stint on the Financial Times' Data team. He interned at the Wall Street Journal in New York where he primarily wrote for Heard on the Street.Theron has freelanced for The Independent, The Telegraph, WIRED, and several smaller publications. He holds an undergraduate degree in geography from the London School of Economics, and a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.Theron often covers Warren Buffett, Michael Burry, Jeremy Grantham and other top-flight investors. He also writes about the world's wealthiest people and shares financial advice from all manner of rich and successful people.Email Theron at [email protected] and follow him on X @theron_mohamed.Expertise

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