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SpaceX doubles AI spending as Musk accelerates trillion dollar ambition
AI capex jumps to $15.8 billion as compute capacity targets 10GW by end of 2027
MUMBAI: The rockets may launch skywards, but right now it’s the servers doing the heavy lifting. SpaceX is pouring billions into artificial intelligence, betting that the next giant leap won’t just be in space, it will be in computing power.
SpaceX more than doubled its investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure during the second quarter of 2026, as Elon Musk outlined an aggressive roadmap that stretches from faster AI models to a $1 trillion annual revenue ambition.
For the quarter ended 30 June 2026, the company spent $15.8 billion (around Rs 1.38 lakh crore) on AI-related capital expenditure, up sharply from $7.7 billion (around Rs 67,400 crore) in the previous quarter. Overall capital expenditure reached $18.4 billion (around Rs 1.61 lakh crore), with the remaining investment directed towards Starship and launch infrastructure, satellite manufacturing and expanding global ground stations.
The spending spree coincided with a rapid expansion of SpaceX’s AI computing muscle. AI compute capacity climbed to 1.4 gigawatts (GW) from 1.0 GW in the previous quarter and 0.4 GW a year earlier. Speaking during the company’s first earnings call, Musk said SpaceX expects to cross 2 GW by the end of 2026 before scaling to 10 GW by the end of next year.
Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said AI infrastructure investment would likely remain at similar levels over the coming quarters, adding that the company is achieving a payback period of less than one year on its compute investments.
The company also disclosed that it signed cloud services contracts worth $6.7 billion (around Rs 58,600 crore) in the opening weeks of the current quarter for a six-month period beginning in October. Combined with contributions from AI coding platform Cursor, Johnsen said the deals keep SpaceX on track to achieve a $100 billion (around Rs 8.75 lakh crore) annualised revenue run rate by the end of this year.
Musk went a step further, saying the company has advanced its internal target for reaching $1 trillion (around Rs 87.5 lakh crore) in annual revenue from 2031 to 2030, with the possibility of hitting the milestone as early as 2029.
The AI business itself delivered explosive growth. Revenue from AI solutions and infrastructure surged to $2.2 billion (around Rs 19,250 crore) from $480 million (around Rs 4,200 crore) in the previous quarter and $310 million (around Rs 2,700 crore) a year earlier.
Overall AI revenue rose to $2.56 billion (around Rs 22,400 crore) from $818 million (around Rs 7,160 crore) in the first quarter and $737 million (around Rs 6,450 crore) a year ago.
Advertising revenue linked to the AI segment, including social media platform X, increased 7 per cent quarter-on-quarter to $367 million (around Rs 3,210 crore) from $343 million (around Rs 3,000 crore), although it remained below the $426 million (around Rs 3,730 crore) recorded a year earlier.
The division’s operating loss almost halved sequentially to $1.3 billion (around Rs 11,375 crore), while adjusted EBITDA swung into positive territory at $1.1 billion (around Rs 9,625 crore).
SpaceX has also continued strengthening its AI ecosystem through strategic partnerships. The company recently signed compute-capacity agreements worth $920 million (around Rs 8,050 crore) with Google and $1.25 billion per month (around Rs 10,940 crore) with Anthropic.
On the product front, SpaceXAI launched Grok 4.5, developed jointly with Cursor for finance, legal and coding applications. According to President Gwynne Shotwell, enterprise demand has been robust, with token consumption tripling immediately after the model’s July debut.
Musk said Grok 4.6 is expected next week, followed by Grok 4.7 within three to four weeks. Grok 5, due before the end of the year, will incorporate SpaceX’s complete archive of data accumulated over the past 25 years, which Musk said would make it “by far the best engineer.”
As part of its broader AI strategy, SpaceX has merged with Musk’s AI venture xAI in a transaction valuing the combined company at $1.25 trillion (around Rs 109 lakh crore). The company has also agreed to acquire AI coding platform Cursor for $60 billion (around Rs 5.25 lakh crore), with the deal expected to close during the third quarter. Separately, Musk confirmed that SpaceX’s future AI infrastructure will be built exclusively on Nvidia’s Vera Rubin platform.
