SpaceX Earnings: Q3 Revenue Hits $14.6B as Tesla Merger Talk Grows

What happened

SpaceX earnings for the third quarter came in well ahead of Wall Street’s forecasts. The company reported $14.6 billion in revenue for the July-to-September period, compared with the roughly $12.72 billion analysts had expected, according to Forbes. Sales were up 161% from the same quarter a year earlier, and the company earned $4.4 billion in net income.

The bigger headline came on the earnings call Tuesday night, Oct. 20. Elon Musk said SpaceX and Tesla have each set up a special committee of independent directors to look at combining the two companies, Yahoo Finance reports. He said he thinks a merger would be a good idea, but warned that treating it as a done deal would be “overstating it.”

Investors liked what they heard. SpaceX stock, which trades as SPCX, closed at $147.79 on Tuesday and was up nearly 10% by 10:30 a.m. EDT Wednesday. Tesla shares rose more than 3% that morning, ahead of Tesla’s own earnings report after the closing bell.

SpaceX earnings by the numbers

This was only the second quarterly report since SpaceX became a public company. Here are the main figures Forbes reported:

A few things stand out from that table. SpaceX’s AI business, which expanded after the company acquired Musk’s xAI in February, now brings in more money than Starlink. By simple arithmetic, the AI business and Starlink together account for about $12.8 billion, or roughly 88% of the quarter’s revenue.

The profit swing is also notable. A $5.5 billion improvement on top of $4.4 billion in profit means SpaceX lost about $1.1 billion in the same quarter last year. Business Insider credits a strong compute leasing business, which rents out computing power, for outweighing heavy spending on new AI infrastructure.

Musk added fuel afterward with a post on X saying $1 trillion in SpaceX revenue in 2028 is “no longer impossible.” For scale, that would be more than 17 times the current pace if you multiply this quarter by four (about $58 billion a year).

Why a Tesla merger is on the table

Talk of a SpaceX-Tesla tie-up has circulated for months, and the two companies already work together. Tesla’s planned flying Roadster uses thrusters built by SpaceX, Business Insider notes. Musk said there is a lot of merit to a combination, pointing to shared work on AI, robotics and chipmaking.

He was also careful. Musk described talking about the deal as like “tap dancing through a minefield.” Because he is a major owner of both companies, he is a conflicted party and can’t sit on either committee. Those committees were formed at shareholders’ request, Yahoo Finance reports.

Here is how Musk’s stakes compare, based on Yahoo Finance’s figures:

• Tesla: about 20% of the shares.
• SpaceX: about 48% of the shares, but about 82% of the voting power through super-voting Class B stock.

That gap matters. Analysts at Barclays estimate that in an all-stock deal, with SpaceX as the buyer and Tesla holders getting roughly 0.7 of a SpaceX share for each share they own, Musk would own about 37% of the combined company and control about 56% of the vote. Business Insider puts SpaceX’s value near $2 trillion and Tesla’s market value near $1.5 trillion; Barclays uses about $2.1 trillion for SpaceX.

The hurdles

A merger is not simple. Any deal needs both sides to agree on terms, and Tesla shareholders would have to approve it with at least 50% support, which Musk acknowledged is a high bar, according to Business Insider.

There’s also a geopolitical wrinkle. Tesla does big business in China, while SpaceX holds U.S. military contracts. Business Insider notes that combining the two would create a conflict there. In July, The Wall Street Journal reported that Tesla had discussed spinning off or selling its China operations, a report Musk called “fake news.”

What happens next

• Tesla earnings, Oct. 21. Tesla was set to report after the market closed on Wednesday, and investors will listen for any merger comments.
• Tesla’s annual meeting. Under SEC rules it must happen by Dec. 6. Barclays sees it as the likely place for a shareholder vote if a deal is announced soon.
• A longer timeline. If an announcement slips to late October or early November, Barclays says approval at that meeting gets harder and a deal could take six to 12 months.

For background on the stock, see our explainer on Musk’s pledge to give SpaceX shares to U.S. kids.

Quick answers

How much did SpaceX make in the third quarter?

SpaceX reported $14.6 billion in revenue and $4.4 billion in net income for the third quarter of 2026, according to Forbes.

Are SpaceX and Tesla merging?

Not yet. Both boards have formed special committees to study it, and Musk says he supports the idea, but no deal has been agreed and Tesla shareholders would need to approve one.

Why did SpaceX stock go up?

Revenue beat forecasts by nearly $2 billion and Musk confirmed merger discussions. SPCX was up nearly 10% on the morning of Oct. 21.