Late in SpaceX's results call, Musk said he was "tap dancing through a minefield" when asked about combining SpaceX with Tesla, and added, "I have to be thoughtful about what I say here." He then disclosed that both companies set up special committees of independent directors to study the idea and noted he is not allowed to participate in their deliberations.
He still staked out a view: "Do I think it would be a good idea? Yes." He also said he suspects "people out there assume" the merger is a certainty, but called that an overstatement. Shares moved higher after the comments, with SpaceX up as much as 8.6% and Tesla up to 1.7% in late trading. SpaceX closed at a $2 trillion valuation, making it the larger company by market value as the pair together approach almost $3.5 trillion.
For the quarter ending in September, SpaceX reported net income of $4.4 billion, exceeding the $1.88 billion analyst average. Revenue climbed 161% year over year and topped expectations.
The AI business now branded Super Intelligence, or SI, booked $7.56 billion in revenue, more than nine times last year's level, and posted $431 million in operating income after a $1.7 billion loss a year earlier. SpaceX now serves as a significant provider of computing resources and infrastructure to Anthropic PBC, Alphabet Inc., and other clients, and in August bought Cursor, the developer of a popular AI coding tool. "Super Intelligence was the standout growth driver for the quarter," Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said, citing rising demand for computing power and Grok enterprise sales.
Johnsen said total revenue could reach $37 billion during the first quarter of next year. He also indicated SpaceX plans to keep borrowing, saying there are "a number of available pools of debt capital that we are talking to at the moment." Separately, Ross Gerber of Gerber Kawasaki, a shareholder, said SpaceX should just buy Tesla now.
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Starlink reached 13.6 million subscribers by the third quarter, below analyst expectations, yet connectivity revenue still rose 69% to $5.25 billion and beat forecasts. Johnsen said adoption was propelled by in flight WiFi in aviation and by Starshield, a more encrypted and secure version of the service.
Scrutiny of Starshield increased after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the White House and Musk of imposing limits on the technology used by Ukrainian forces for battlefield communications and operations. Musk and former President Donald Trump both denied involvement in any limitations.
Launch and spacecraft revenue rose 6% to $1.77 billion. Musk said SpaceX aims to recover both the booster and the ship during the 15th Starship test flight scheduled for next month. President Gwynne Shotwell added that the company plans to try the first on-orbit refueling demo with Starship early next year, a capability required for SpaceX's NASA moon landing contract. SpaceX is slated to have a prototype ready next year capable of docking with NASA's Orion spacecraft for the Artemis III mission, which precedes a 2028 lunar landing, though the schedule remains uncertain.
Starship is also critical for launching upgraded Starlink satellites with greater capacity and data speeds. Shotwell said that by launching what the company calls V3 Starship satellites on a far larger vehicle, the resulting extra capacity will enable SpaceX to enter new markets. "Connecting cars, robots and the adoption of superintelligence will increase communication demands not in percentages, but in many orders of magnitudes," she said. "We expect Starlink alone to represent a significant portion of global internet traffic."
A SpaceX Tesla merger would bundle electric vehicles, energy storage, rockets and satellites under a strategy that leans on AI for orbital data centers, driverless cars and humanoid robots. "There's no question that Musk wants the merger, and he wants to get it done sooner rather than later," said Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management. Early SpaceX investor Chad Anderson of Space Capital said, "It makes a ton of sense," arguing a combined company would own "the full physical-AI stack, from chip fabrication to orbital data centers to autonomous devices on the ground."
The market's first take was upbeat, but the mechanics are not trivial. The independent committees have not set terms and Musk flagged the challenge of securing Tesla shareholder approval. The bottom line: AI and connectivity are accelerating for SpaceX, launch is growing more slowly, and management is guiding to a much larger revenue base with debt funding in the mix.
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