Space Exploration Technologies reported that its SI division generated $7.56 billion in third-quarter revenue, a jump of about 830% from a year earlier that puts the company’s AI push at the center of the stock story. The division also posted a small operating profit of $431 million, even after $16.4 billion in capital expenditures during the quarter.
That is why investors are searching SpaceX stock price drop after-hours trading now: the numbers show a business growing far faster than the company’s core rocket operation, while also consuming staggering amounts of cash to build out its AI data center platform. Space Exploration Technologies, better known as SpaceX, has long been known for rockets that can return to Earth and be reused, but this report says the SI division is the engine that now matters most.
The comparison with last year is stark. SI revenue rose from $813 million in Q3 2025 to $7.56 billion in Q3 2026, after reaching $2.56 billion in the second quarter of 2026. That kind of acceleration makes the quarter look less like a one-off and more like a rapid scaling phase for the division that includes xAI and X, even though X accounts for only a fraction of the total.
The arithmetic behind the profit figure is where the story gets messy. Space Exploration Technologies said it recorded a $1.2 billion stock-based compensation cost tied to the acquisition of Cursor in August, its first report since that deal. The company did not say how much of the SI division’s revenue came from Cursor, leaving investors with a huge revenue number, a modest operating gain, and a major accounting charge that sits beside both.
What comes next is less about the launch pad than the balance sheet. Space Exploration Technologies has now told investors to judge the company by the scale and speed of its SI division, not by the business that made SpaceX famous, and the next unanswered question is how much of this revenue can be sustained without the same level of spending.
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team said Space Exploration Technologies was not among the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now.
