SpaceX Q3 Earnings Surge Past Estimates While 18,712 Bitcoin Stash Holds Firm

SpaceX reported third-quarter results on Tuesday, Oct. 20, that blew past Wall Street's expectations, powered by explosive growth in its artificial intelligence business even as its long-held bitcoin stash stayed essentially in place.

Revenue climbed 161% to $14.6 billion, and the aerospace and AI powerhouse converted a $1.1 billion loss from a year earlier into $4.4 billion of profit. Deeper in the financial statements sat another billion-dollar figure worth noting: $1.573 billion in digital assets, consistent with the company's long-standing bitcoin treasury. For Elon Musk, whose business empire now stretches from orbital launches to artificial intelligence, the results showed how thoroughly SpaceX has evolved beyond its rocket-building origins.

AI-Fueled Quarter Crushes Expectations

The newly publicly traded company posted $2.8 billion in operating income and $8.8 billion in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), a 306% year-over-year increase. Diluted earnings came to 35 cents per share, comfortably ahead of analyst estimates of roughly 13 to 16 cents, while revenue topped forecasts in the range of $12.7 billion to $12.9 billion.

The showstopper was the Super Intelligence division, which generated $7.56 billion in revenue, an astonishing 830% increase from the previous year. The business, encompassing Grok, cloud infrastructure and the recently acquired Cursor operation, overtook Starlink as SpaceX's largest revenue contributor. Its operating income reached $431 million, reversing a $1.72 billion loss in the comparable quarter of 2025.

Starlink was hardly idle. The connectivity unit produced $5.25 billion in revenue, up 69%, supported by 13.6 million consumer subscribers. Traditional space operations added another $1.77 billion, and the company's first revenue-generating Starship mission successfully deployed 26 next-generation Starlink satellites, a sign of progress across both its consumer internet and launch businesses.

18,712 Bitcoin Remain a Billion-Dollar Fixture

On page 10 of the earnings report, the consolidated balance sheet lists $1.573 billion under "Digital assets" as of Sept. 30, 2026. That compares with $1.637 billion at the end of December 2025, a $64 million decline in reported value.

Although the quarterly release does not explicitly identify bitcoin or disclose the number of coins held, previous filings established SpaceX's position at 18,712 $BTC, acquired at an approximate cost basis of $661 million, an implied average purchase price of roughly $35,300 per coin. Blockchain intelligence platform Arkham Intelligence likewise tracks the company's holdings at 18,712 $BTC, associated primarily with Coinbase Prime custody. The position puts SpaceX in the ranks of publicly traded companies that carry bitcoin on their balance sheets, an approach pioneered by software firm MicroStrategy — now Strategy — and adopted early by Tesla, Musk's electric-vehicle company.

The distinction matters, and it is rooted in accounting mechanics as much as any corporate decision: under the fair-value standard that U.S. companies began applying in 2025, bitcoin held on corporate balance sheets is remeasured to market value each quarter, with unrealized gains and losses running through reported results even when no coins change hands. The $64 million reduction in reported digital-asset value therefore does not necessarily represent a sale. SpaceX's cash flow statement in fact records a corresponding $64 million unrealized loss on digital assets during the first nine months of 2026, consistent with changes in market valuation rather than a confirmed disposal.

For a company increasingly dominated by artificial intelligence, bitcoin remains a sizable, if comparatively quiet, financial holding — one still carried at more than twice its recorded cost basis even after this year's $64 million markdown. The latest earnings materials show no indication of additional purchases or sales, leaving the previously disclosed treasury position intact based on available information. Under the same accounting rules, future filings will reprice the line each quarter, making the digital-assets entry the clearest indicator of whether the company's coin count ever actually changes.

Heavy Spending, Deep Reserves

SpaceX's extraordinary growth is not coming cheaply. Capital expenditures totaled $19.6 billion during the quarter, with $16.4 billion directed toward the Super Intelligence division. Even so, the company finished September with approximately $89.9 billion in cash and marketable securities, considerable financial ammunition for its ambitious expansion plans.

Musk, meanwhile, continues to top the global wealth rankings. Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires list valued his fortune at approximately $925 billion on Oct. 20, 2026, a $1.4 billion increase from the previous trading day. Much of that wealth is tied to his ownership stakes in SpaceX and Tesla, meaning the figure can shift dramatically with market valuations.

With SpaceX posting multibillion-dollar profits, an expanding AI empire and a bitcoin treasury worth more than $1.5 billion, Musk now finds himself within striking distance of a milestone once confined to financial fiction: a personal fortune approaching $1 trillion.