SpaceX posts blowout Q3 earnings as total revenue jumps 161%
Web StoryWatch this story in 15 seconds →Key takeaways
- SpaceX posted third-quarter revenue of $14.6 billion, up 161% from last year. Its AI unit drove most of the growth.
- The beat lifted US stocks on Oct 21. The S&P 500 rose 0.6% and the Nasdaq gained 1.1%.
- Two days later, an analyst upgraded SpaceX from Sell straight to Buy. The price target tripled from $75 to $250.
SpaceX reported blowout third-quarter results on Oct 21, 2026. Its shares jumped 7.8% on the news. The strong profit helped lift all of Wall Street. It also calmed fears that the artificial-intelligence boom was running out of steam.
This was a rare moment for SpaceX. The company went public earlier in 2026, so it now reports results like any other listed company. Investors had been nervous about tech stocks.
This report gave them a reason to buy again.
What happened
SpaceX reported revenue of $14.6 billion for the third quarter, according to the Motley Fool. That is 161% higher than the same quarter last year. The biggest driver was the company's AI division, called Super Intelligence, or SI.
SI brought in $7.6 billion in sales in the quarter. A year ago, that figure was just $813 million. The growth rate shocked Wall Street.
SI is the part of SpaceX that sells computing power for AI work.
The market loved the numbers. SpaceX shares climbed 7.8% on Oct 21, the Associated Press reported. The company said its profit for the summer was stronger than analysts had expected.
The whole market moved with it. The S&P 500 added 0.6% and closed at 7,757.17, within 0.8% of its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 360 points, or 0.7%, to close at 52,856.09. The Nasdaq composite climbed 1.1% to 26,702.86.
Elon Musk added fuel to the rally. He said SpaceX had taken a step toward a possible merger with Tesla, his electric-vehicle company. Dow Jones Newswires reported that committees have been formed to explore the idea.
Tesla rose 3.4% and was one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500.
Other companies rode the wave too. Capital One Financial rose 2.5% after its own strong report. Winnebago Industries climbed 10.7%.
Nvidia added 2.5% and was the single strongest force lifting the S&P 500.
Not every stock joined the rally. Netflix fell 5.3% even though it beat profit expectations. Investors worried its growth was slowing.
AT&T dropped 6.4% after a weak forecast. CoreWeave, which rents out AI chips, swung wildly before ending down 0.5%.
In the bond market, the 10-year Treasury yield sat at 5.12%. Oil prices stayed unsteady. Brent crude settled at $108.82 a barrel.
South Korea's Kospi jumped 3.3% as AI stocks regained strength in Asia.
Why it matters
To understand this rally, look at what came before it. The previous week was the worst week for the Nasdaq since June. Bank of America clients sold more tech stock in one week than ever before, measured in dollars.
Investors were scared.
Their fear was simple. AI companies have spent huge amounts of money on data centers and chips. Investors worried that this spending would not pay off.
They feared the AI boom was a bubble.
SpaceX's report attacked that fear directly. The company is not just a rocket maker anymore. It is also building its own AI models.
At the same time, it sells computing power to rivals. Those rivals include Anthropic and Google, according to Dow Jones Newswires. That computing business is growing fast.
The message to Wall Street was clear. Demand for AI computing is real, and it is still rising. Super Micro Computer, which sells AI servers, backed this up.
It raised its own revenue forecast. The reason was "increased demand for AI platforms. " Its stock rallied 9.5%.
AI-linked chip stocks felt the lift. Intel and Micron rose as investors returned to the AI trade, the Morningstar report said. Nvidia's 2.5% gain was the biggest single force behind the S&P 500's rise.
Context matters here. Expectations for profit growth are high across Wall Street. Companies need to meet those expectations to justify their high stock prices.
SpaceX did more than meet them. That is why one good report moved the whole market.
Compare this with the tech-stock selloff earlier in the week. Stocks swung from fear to greed in days. SpaceX's numbers were the trigger for the turn.
What happens next
The story got even better for SpaceX two days later. On Oct 23, an analyst gave the stock a rare double upgrade. Phillip Securities analyst Glenn Thum upgraded SpaceX from Sell straight to Buy.
He skipped Hold entirely.
Thum also tripled his price target from $75 to $250 per share. That implies upside of more than 70% from recent trading levels, the Motley Fool reported. SpaceX closed Oct 23 at $147.49, up 1.89% on the day.
The upgrade was driven by the same Q3 report. Thum pointed to the AI division's growth as the main reason. The SI business is now the heart of the SpaceX story.
Musk is not shy about the future. He made a bold claim. He said yearly recurring revenue could reach $500 billion to $1 trillion by the end of 2027. It will need far more AI computing sales to reach it.
SpaceX is also pushing into wireless. The company is reportedly talking about leasing space on at least 80,000 US cell towers. This would broaden its wireless mobile business.
Telecom stocks dropped on the news, as investors priced in tougher competition.
Risks remain. Even after this rally, SpaceX shares are down about 8% since the company went public in 2026. One strong quarter does not end all doubts. AI stocks can swing hard in both directions, as this month has shown.
Watch three things next. First, whether the Tesla merger talks move forward. Second, whether AI computing demand keeps growing in the fourth quarter.
Third, whether other tech giants report numbers as strong when earnings season continues.
This article is for information only and is not financial advice.
SpaceX turned market fear into market hope in less than a week. The question now is simple. Can its AI business keep growing this fast?
The next earnings report will give the answer.
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