SpaceX’s AI business is beating expectations

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SpaceX’s data centers and Grok agents were more profitable than investors expected in third quarter of the year, as the company leaves its roots as a space company behind to focus on artificial intelligence, which now makes up 52% of its income.

SpaceX 的数据中心和 Grok 智能体在第三季度的盈利表现超出了投资者预期。随着公司逐渐淡化其作为航天公司的根基，转而专注于人工智能领域，该业务目前已占其总收入的 52%。

CEO Elon Musk’s deep tech conglomerate reported $14.6 billion in third-quarter revenue on Tuesday, according to its regulatory filing. That number was driven by growth in all segments, but especially its renamed “Super Intelligence” business line, which generated $7.5 billion in revenue from the recently acquired Cursor coding tool, Grok bot, and most importantly, the company’s burgeoning neocloud business, which now boasts 1.7 GW of compute.

根据监管文件，首席执行官埃隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）旗下的这家深度科技集团周二报告称，第三季度营收为 146 亿美元。这一数字得益于各业务板块的增长，尤其是更名为“超级智能”（Super Intelligence）的业务线。该业务线通过近期收购的 Cursor 编码工具、Grok 机器人，以及最重要的、目前拥有 1.7 吉瓦计算能力的新兴云业务，创造了 75 亿美元的收入。

The AI business generated $431 million in profit, which would have been higher without $1.2 billion in one-time stock-based compensation expenses related to the Cursor acquisition. The top-line revenue number was also boosted by about $1 billion in income related to the recovery of Bitcoin prices and unspecified related-party income that might be attributed to a SpaceX investment in another company.

人工智能业务产生了 4.31 亿美元的利润；若非与收购 Cursor 相关的一次性股票薪酬支出达 12 亿美元，该利润本会更高。此外，营收数字还受到约 10 亿美元收入的提振，这些收入与比特币价格回升以及可能归因于 SpaceX 对另一家公司投资的未指明关联方收入有关。

The growing revenue is balanced against total capital expenditures of $19.6 billion, as SpaceX continues to build out a second data center project, Colossus II, and increase investment in Starship, the heavy-lift rocket it sees as vital to deploying a new generation of Starlink satellites and developing orbital data centers. CFO Bret Johnsen said the company would spend $35 billion to $40 billion on new capital investments in the fourth quarter.

在收入增长的同时，公司总资本支出达到 196 亿美元。SpaceX 正继续建设第二个数据中心项目“Colossus II”，并加大对“星舰”（Starship）重型火箭的投资，该公司认为这是部署新一代星链（Starlink）卫星和开发轨道数据中心的关键。首席财务官布雷·约翰森（Bret Johnsen）表示，公司第四季度将在新资本投资上支出 350 亿至 400 亿美元。

During a live-streamed discussion of the results with investors, Musk said he was spending four days a week in Memphis, Tennessee, the site of Colossus II, working to bring the data center online. “People are starting to realize [that] the constraint on deployment of super intelligence is more in power and cooling and infrastructure than it is in chips,” Musk argued, saying that he had tasked a team of SpaceX engineers to solve that problem.

在与投资者进行的业绩直播讨论中，马斯克表示他每周有四天待在田纳西州的孟菲斯（Colossus II 的所在地），致力于让该数据中心上线。马斯克指出：“人们开始意识到，部署超级智能的制约因素更多在于电力、冷却和基础设施，而非芯片。”他表示已指派一支 SpaceX 工程师团队来解决这一问题。

“This is a bit like the New York Yankees playing in Little League. It’s not fair, but the net result is being able to deploy power cooling infrastructure at a rate that is vastly faster than any anyone else.” In one example, Musk noted that manufacturers of turbines to power data centers are facing 12 to 18 month delays in obtaining the metals blades and vanes required for those machines. Now, SpaceX is using the metal casting capabilities developed for SpaceX to make those components and obtain turbines more quickly.

“这有点像纽约洋基队去打少儿棒球联赛。这虽然不公平，但最终结果是我们能够以远超他人的速度部署电力冷却基础设施。”马斯克举例称，为数据中心供电的涡轮机制造商在获取所需的金属叶片和导向叶片时面临 12 到 18 个月的延迟。现在，SpaceX 正利用为自身开发的金属铸造能力来制造这些组件，从而更快地获得涡轮机。

Musk also said that the next test flight of the Starship rocket, expected in November, would see SpaceX attempt to recover both the first-stage booster and the second stage. Recovering both segments of the vehicle would be a “massive technology milestone,” Musk said, but the true milestone will be reflying both stages. SpaceX also saw growth in subscribers to its Starlink space internet network, reaching 13.6 million consumers, with Musk predicting that the growth of AI agents would lead to more demand for connectivity.

马斯克还表示，预计于 11 月进行的下一次“星舰”火箭试飞中，SpaceX 将尝试回收一级助推器和二级飞船。马斯克称，回收火箭的两个部分将是一个“巨大的技术里程碑”，但真正的里程碑将是实现两级的重复飞行。此外，SpaceX 的星链太空互联网网络用户数也有所增长，达到 1360 万，马斯克预测人工智能智能体的增长将带来更多的连接需求。

Despite of those capital expenditures, the company’s revenue boost was substantial enough to push it back into profitability. SpaceX reported net income of $4.4 billion, a turnaround from the $1 billion loss in the same quarter last year. It will still have some catching up to do if it wants to remain profitable for the year, however. In the first nine months of the year, SpaceX still had a net income loss of $413 million.

尽管有这些资本支出，但公司收入的增长足以使其扭亏为盈。SpaceX 报告净利润为 44 亿美元，与去年同期 10 亿美元的亏损相比实现了逆转。不过，如果想要保持全年盈利，公司仍需努力追赶。在今年前九个月中，SpaceX 的净利润仍处于 4.13 亿美元的亏损状态。

Musk took a particularly bullish stance on the company’s Super Intelligence business segment, predicting that SpaceX’s annual recurring revenue by the end of 2027 will be “somewhere between $500 billion and $1 trillion.” More concretely, Johnsen forecast total revenue for the first quarter of 2027 in the range of $33 billion to $37 billion.

马斯克对公司的“超级智能”业务板块持极其乐观的态度，预测到 2027 年底，SpaceX 的年度经常性收入将达到“5000 亿美元至 1 万亿美元之间”。更具体地说，约翰森预测 2027 年第一季度的总收入将在 330 亿至 370 亿美元之间。