SpaceX burned $18.4 billion in capital spending last quarter, 2.4 times its own revenue

SpaceX just dropped its first-ever quarterly earnings report as a public company, and the numbers tell two very different stories depending on which line item you’re reading. Revenue hit $7.8 billion in Q2 2026, a 92% jump year-over-year that beat consensus estimates of roughly $6.9 billion. Then there’s the other number. Capital expenditures clocked in at $18.4 billion for the quarter. That’s approximately 2.4 times the company’s total revenue. Where the money is going The vast majority of that spending, around $15.8 billion, went toward a single project: the Colossus II compute platform. That represents roughly 86% of total capex for the quarter. For context, SpaceX’s capital expenditures in Q2 2025 were $2.8 billion. The company essentially increased its quarterly capital spending by more than 6x in a single year. The AI segment itself generated $2.56 billion in Q2 2026, a 248% increase year-over-year. SpaceX also locked down $14.1 billion in new AI compute contracts during the quarter. The financial tightrope Despite the revenue surge, SpaceX still posted a net loss of $541 million for the quarter. That’s an improvement from the $1 billion loss recorded in the prior year. Adjus...