SpaceX turns profit after string of losses

NEW YORK — SpaceX reported a bigger quarterly profit than expected Tuesday as its satellite communications operations and its business of leasing computing power to other companies boomed.

The company, run by Elon Musk, posted net income in the three months through September of US$4.4 billion, or 35 cents US per share. That’s more than double what Wall Street expected, and reverses a loss from the year-earlier period. Revenue soared to US$14.6 billion, up 161 per cent.

The results for the newly public company were a sharp break from the pattern of losses going back more than a year. The stock rose 2.2 per cent in after-hours trading.

Shares had been under pressure over concerns SpaceX was spending too much on major projects to compete with rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic. The company said capital expenditures totalled US$19.6 billion last quarter, nearly triple the figure from a year earlier.

— The Associated Press