SpaceX's first earnings reveal the cost of becoming an AI giant: Chart of the Day

SpaceX's first quarterly report as a public company showed its AI business revenue more than tripled to $2.6 billion and adjusted EBITDA swung to a $1.1 billion profit, but the company spent $15.8 billion on AI infrastructure in the quarter, over six times segment revenue, causing shares to fall more than 10% in premarket trading. The heavy capital spending, which accounted for over 86% of total capital expenditures, reflects SpaceX's rapid expansion of computing capacity, including its Colossus II data center, as it signed $14.1 billion in cloud services agreements.

SpaceX SPCX https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SPCX/ is becoming an AI giant faster than expected — it is also spending like one. The company's first quarterly report as a public company https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/article/spacexs-q2-results-top-estimates-in-first-ever-quarterly-report-132323178.html showed its AI business growing rapidly and swinging to an adjusted profit. But SpaceX spent nearly $16 billion on AI infrastructure during the quarter — more than six times the segment's revenue. Space stock fell more than 10% in premarket trading. That advances a shift visible before the IPO. SpaceX entered the public market with a rocket company reputation, but its own filings pointed investors toward AI https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/article/spacexs-ipo-charts-reveal-a-company-spending-like-an-ai-giant-chart-of-the-day-120213160.html . AI revenue more than tripled from the first quarter to $2.6 billion. Adjusted EBITDA swung from a $609 million loss to a $1.1 billion profit. Adjusted EBITDA https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/ebitda.asp strips out depreciation, stock compensation, and several other expenses. It can show whether an operation is covering its immediate costs, but it does not capture the full price of building the infrastructure behind it. By conventional accounting, SpaceX's AI segment still lost $1.3 billion from operations. Then came the much larger number. Capital spending https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/capitalexpenditure.asp on AI jumped to $15.8 billion from $7.7 billion in the first quarter and just $749 million a year earlier. AI accounted for more than 86% of SpaceX's total capital spending during the quarter. The spending went toward expanding SpaceX's computing capacity, including the continued build-out of its Colossus II data center https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/ai-data-centers-pass-1-153946550.html . The company ended June with 1.4 gigawatts of capacity, up from 1 gigawatt three months earlier. New customers are beginning to fill that capacity. SpaceX signed several cloud services agreements representing $14.1 billion in contracted sales. Those deals produced $1.6 billion in incremental AI infrastructure revenue during the quarter. That helped push companywide revenue to $7.8 billion, up 92% from a year ago and well above Wall Street estimates. Adjusted EBITDA reached $3.5 billion, nearly triple the prior-year level. The cash picture remains far less forgiving. During the first six months of the year, SpaceX generated $3.5 billion in cash from its operations https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/operatingcashflow.asp . It spent $28.5 billion on capital projects, including $23.6 billion on AI. SpaceX has the money to keep going. Its blockbuster initial public offering https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/article/spacexs-biggest-ipo-risks-are-also-its-bull-case-173659815.html raised nearly $86 billion, and the company ended June with about $100 billion in cash, equivalents, and marketable securities. SpaceX shares rallied over 9% Tuesday for their best day since the IPO, only one session after touching an all-time low near $105. The stock then fell after the report. Jared Blikre is the global markets and data editor for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X at @SPYJared or email him at jaredblikre@yahooinc.com. Click here for in-depth analysis of the latest stock market news and events moving stock prices Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance