NEW YORK — SpaceX reported a bigger quarterly profit than expected Tuesday as its satellite communications operations and its business of leasing computing power to other companies boomed. The company, run by Elon Musk, posted net income in the three months through September of US$4.4 billion, or 35 cents per share. That’s more than double what Wall Street expected, and reverses a loss from the year-earlier period. Revenue soared to US$14.6 billion, up 161 per cent. “They beat across all metrics and the Starlink business looks to be accelerating,” said Dan Ives, an analyst at Yorkville Ives, adding about investors. “This is just what the Street wanted.” The newly public company’s results marked a sharp break from more than a year of losses. The stock rose 4.6 per cent in after-hours trading. In an investor call, Musk said that for next month’s launch of its Starship rocket, SpaceX will attempt to grab both the booster and ship with mechanical arms upon return to base, a key step toward demonstrating it can reuse the massive spacecraft. “The only way that we can extend consciousness beyond Earth on a sustained basis is with a fully reusable orbital launch vehicle,” Musk said, calling the attempt, if successful, “a massive technology milestone.” SpaceX hopes to get Starship on a regular launch pattern in preparation for NASA’s upcoming lunar missions. The company already has huge contracts with the federal government, and House Democrats have called for investigations into those contracts and Musk’s work with the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk has spent US$276 million since July in support of Republican candidates. He recently drew criticism from politicians in Washington after speeds for a military version of SpaceX’s satellite communications service were slowed for Ukraine following President Donald Trump’s deal to get more diesel oil from Russia amid a push to end the war. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that it was Musk who ordered the slowdown, impeding Ukraine’s use of drones along the front. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Journal story. Both Trump and Musk have denied responsibility for the slowdown. As midterm elections near, Musk on Monday promised to give one share of SpaceX to “every kid in America” next year, though he provided no details on how the distribution would be carried out. With communities nationwide protesting the construction of large data centers and concerns about the safety of artificial intelligence, AI companies are trying to build some goodwill. Anthropic pledged to commit five per cent of its shares to a new “public benefit” fund. In a filing for its initial public offering in June, SpaceX warned that a change in control of Congress could have a “material and adverse impact on our growth and competitive position.” SpaceX shares have been under pressure over concerns that the company was spending too much on major projects to compete with rivals such as Anthropic. The company said capital expenditures totaled US$19.6 billion last quarter, nearly triple the figure from a year earlier, and it forecast spending would grow to US$35 billion to US$40 billion in the current quarter. Shares of SpaceX closed Tuesday at US$147.79, down from a peak near US$201 after its IPO, which made Musk the world’s first trillionaire at the time. But the share prices for SpaceX and Tesla have since dropped, reducing his net worth to US$925 billion, according to Forbes magazine. Bernard Condon, The Associated Press
