Instant View: SpaceX's first quarterly results as a public company beat expectations, but AI costs hit stock

Instant View: SpaceX's first quarterly results as a public company beat expectations, but AI costs hit stock NEW YORK, Aug 4 : SpaceX on Tuesday posted its first quarterly results as a public company, highlighting a 92 per cent rise in revenue on strong growth in its Starlink satellite-internet and AI businesses. Revenue for the second quarter ended in June rose to $7.8 billion from $4.1 billion a year earlier, beating the $6.9 billion consensus estimate. The firm lost 9 cents a share, beating the 26-cent loss expected by analysts. Shares fell 4 per cent in late trading on Tuesday after rising 9.4 per cent in regular action. The report has been widely anticipated on Wall Street in part because the earnings release will be followed this week by the unlock of 911 million shares previously subject to restrictions - an event that stands to add to the already significant pressure on the shares of Elon Musk's rockets-and-AI firm. SpaceX has risen more than 10 per cent this week but remains below the $135-a-share price at which it raised $75 billion in June in the largest-ever public offering. The stock's decline means that an additional 455 million shares that could have been unlocked this week had SpaceX shares risen above certain stated thresholds will remain ineligible for release for now. COMMENTS: BRIAN MULBERRY, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST AT ZACKS INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT, GOLDEN, COLORADO: "The two things that stood out to me are the doubling of Starlink subscriptions from 6 million to 12 million...and then the actual AI revenue was up 350 per cent. ... Those two numbers were absolutely the biggest outperforming data points. "I think that's a tremendous upside surprise today alone is the fact that AI is already monetizing itself. They're not relying on Starlink to fund operations there. I think that's a huge part of the story. "If they can continue to build on this number and continue to monetize AI directly, then it really does soften our concerns about the capex being a little bit too heavy. I think that this is one of those types of results that will change our thinking and might move up our scale in terms of when we want to take a position." ADAM SARHAN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, 50 PARK INVESTMENTS, NEW YORK: "They made it very clear this is not a quarter-by-quarter play. Elon's mission is a long-term mission... it's perfectly normal to see fluctuations around highly anticipated IPOs within the first year, if not the first two years, of coming out and starting to trade. "Revenue jumped 92 per cent but AI costs were high. But revenue jumped, so clearly they're doing something right. "But they have to meet and exceed Wall Street's already lofty expectations, and that becomes a very difficult thing for any company to do let alone an extremely popular IPO." [Image text:] 105939 CELRCEN Nasdag