NEW YORK -- SpaceX reported a smaller loss than Wall Street expected along with a surge in revenue in its first quarterly report as a public company as it sharply boosted spending, particularly on artificial intelligence. The company run by Elon Musk posted a loss of US$541 million, or 9 cents per share, in the three months through June, less than half what financial analysts had forecast. Revenue jumped to $7.8 billion, up more than 90 per cent from the year-earlier period. A standout in the quarter was the company’s big cash source, its “connectivity” business, with revenue jumping 66 per cent from a year earlier as the number of subscribers to its Starlink satellite communications service doubled to 12 million. “It’s not out of the question that at some point, Starlink will deliver a majority of the world’s internet,” Musk said in call with analysts. SpaceX stock rose 9 per cent in regular trading Tuesday, but gave most of the gain back after hours. The rocket, satellite and AI company’s stock has fallen by roughly half since peaking in June shortly after an initial public offering that briefly made Musk the world’s first trillionaire. Investors are worried Musk has oversold them on the company’s future prospects for space travel and its AI chatbot Grok. They’re also bracing for volatile trading as some company insiders get the opportunity to sell shares after the expiration of what’s known as a lockup provision later in the week. Another area of concern is SpaceX spending on infrastructure and R&D, which jumped to $18 billion from less than $3 billion a year ago. The company’s chief financial officer, Bret Johnsen, said to expect similar capital expenditures for the next two quarters. Musk defended the outlays, a concern also weighing on many other technology companies spending heavily on AI, saying the resulting supercharged growth meant the company would reach a trillion dollars in revenue a year faster now, 2030 rather than 2031. Shares jumped 19 per cent on their first day of trading in June, making Musk the first-ever trillionaire. The subsequent drop, as well as a decline in the shares of Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla, have knocked his wealth down to $783 billion, according to Forbes. Musk was asked several times about the prospects for the gigantic Starship rocket that is key to SpaceX realizing his ambitions. Starship successfully deployed satellites in space during a test late last month. Musk said he expected SpaceX will attempt to test the reusability of Starship at the end of the month when it will attempt to grab the spacecraft and its booster with mechanical arms upon their return to their base. NASA hopes to use Starship to put astronauts on the moon again in the near future. “We want to put boots on the ground -- boots on the moon -- in 2028,” said SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell. SpaceX shares could see continued volatility. Some insiders have been barred from selling in the public offering but that prohibition begins to ease on Thursday when more than 900 million shares are released for trading, more than doubling the amount currently available. The lockup release is the first of several tranches of stock that will be freed to trade over the next several months. The company also runs the social media platform X, formerly Twitter. __ Bernard Conodn, The Associated Press
