It’s earnings season and SpaceX SPCX just delivered its first report as a public company, and the numbers looked strong enough to impress almost any boardroom.

Revenue surged, losses came in much smaller than expected and Elon Musk doubled down on an ambitious vision stretching from reusable rockets to AI data centers in orbit. Wall Street, however, had a different reaction.

Shares slid as much as 8% in after-hours trading as investors looked beyond today's results and focused on tomorrow's bill.

📈 Revenue Is Flying Higher

On paper, the quarter looked like a success. SpaceX generated $7.8 billion in quarterly revenue, comfortably ahead of analysts' expectations for $6.8 billion and up an impressive 92% from the same period a year earlier.

The rocket company also reported a net loss of $541 million, far better than Wall Street's forecast of roughly $2.1 billion.

Those figures reinforced the investment case many shareholders bought into during June's record-breaking IPO. SpaceX continues to expand rapidly across launch services, Starlink satellite internet and its emerging artificial intelligence business.

💸 The $16 Billion Problem

The enthusiasm faded during the earnings call. Capital expenditure on AI, commonly called capex, reached almost $16 billion during the quarter.

Capex refers to money spent building long-term assets such as data centers, factories and computing infrastructure rather than covering day-to-day operating costs.

That figure was roughly double the previous quarter and comfortably above Wall Street's expectations.

More importantly, Musk told investors that spending would remain around current levels for at least two more quarters.

⚡ The AI Buildout

Musk also outlined the next stage of SpaceX's transformation. The company plans to increase its computing capacity from roughly 2 gigawatts by the end of this year to closer to 10 gigawatts than 5 gigawatts by the end of 2027.

For perspective, a gigawatt measures electrical capacity. At the upper end of Musk's projection, SpaceX's AI infrastructure could consume power comparable to New York City on a hot summer day.

Building that kind of capacity isn't like adding another server rack in the office. Every new gigawatt requires enormous investment in land, power connections, networking equipment and, above all, advanced AI chips.

Musk also confirmed that future infrastructure will rely exclusively on Nvidia hardware, giving the AI chip leader yet another major customer.

Sorry, AMD AMD .

🌌 The Vision

The spending supports ambitions that extend far beyond rockets. Musk said SpaceX continues developing its first orbital AI data-center platform, known as Starmind AI-1, with initial launches expected next year.

He also accelerated one of his boldest financial targets. SpaceX now expects to generate $1 trillion in annual revenue by 2030, one year earlier than previously projected. Musk even suggested there is a "non-zero probability" the milestone could arrive in 2029.

That number deserves a moment of appreciation (or a few laughs). SpaceX generated $7.8 billion in revenue this quarter. Microsoft MSFT , Apple AAPL and Alphabet GOOGL together are expected to produce roughly $1.3 trillion in sales during 2026.

Reaching a trillion dollars means scaling at a pace that few companies in history have even imagined.

🤔 Why the Market Blinked

SpaceX's valuation has always depended more on future possibilities than present-day profits.

Its roughly $1.65 trillion market capitalization (a top 10 company) assumes success across reusable rockets, Starlink, orbital computing, artificial intelligence and potentially closer integration with Tesla TSLA through projects such as the Terafab semiconductor initiative.

That future still excites investors. The challenge is that every new chapter appears to require another extraordinary wave of spending before meaningful (or any) profits arrive.

The next question is whether the company can convert tens of billions of dollars in AI investment into the kind of cash flow needed to justify one of the richest valuations on Wall Street.

Off to you: Are you excited to see the SpaceX stock dip? What’s your view on future performance?