SpaceX Super Intelligence and Tesla merger talks

SpaceX's Super Intelligence segment generated $7.56 billion in Q3 2026, 52% of total revenue, up from 15% a year earlier, beating analyst estimates of $6.47 billion and nearly tripling Q2's $2.56 billion. Total revenue reached $14.58 billion, up 161% year-over-year, against a Wall Street estimate of roughly $12.7 billion. Net income was $4.4 billion, adjusted EBITDA $8.8 billion, and Fortune described this as SpaceX's first operating profit as a public company. SpaceX still showed a $413 million net loss for the first nine months of 2026. Cash at period end was $53.4 billion versus $12.1 billion in the prior period. The segment's $6.7 billion year-over-year gain came from cloud services agreements, the Cursor acquisition (contributing $608 million after closing August 14), and AI software including Grok Bot. Compute customers include Anthropic and Google. SpaceX guided Q1 2027 revenue at $33 to $37 billion.

Nameplate compute capacity stood at 1.7 GW as of September 30, 2026. SpaceX expects to reach 2.5 to 3 GW by year-end and plans to build 20 GW of new power and cooling capacity in 2027, roughly a 7x increase. Musk said SpaceX is bringing approximately 200,000 Nvidia GB300 GPUs online each month through year-end and plans a 440,000-GPU Vera Rubin training cluster by end of Q2 2027. Q3 capital spending was $19.6 billion, with more than $16.4 billion in AI infrastructure, and Q4 CapEx guidance is $35 to $40 billion. Estimates place SpaceX/xAI at approximately 2.8 GW, or about 6% of global AI compute capacity, by end of 2026, with a 13 GW target for 2027 that would represent roughly 16% of projected global capacity, ahead of Google at 12.9 GW, Amazon at 9.3 GW, and Microsoft at 9.1 GW.

Independent director committees at SpaceX and Tesla are studying a potential merger at shareholders' request, with Musk recused as conflicted. Musk said he personally supports a combination for reasons spanning Super Intelligence software, chips, Terafab, robotics, and Starlink, but that it is not guaranteed and would require 50% of all outstanding Tesla shares voting yes. The Wall Street Journal reported that the strategic rationale frames Tesla's robotaxis and Optimus robots as the consumer-facing front end dependent on SpaceX's data centers and Starlink satellite links.

Musk said a first SRAM test chip is targeted for May or June 2027 at an Austin research fab, with volume production at Gibbons Creek, Texas aimed for Q3 or Q4 2028. Musk described the schedule as 'very aggressive' and said SpaceX does not know if it will achieve the milestones. TSMC's CEO C.C. Wei confirmed ongoing discussions but stated any fab involving TSMC must be operated by TSMC, conflicting with Musk's stated intent for his companies to build and operate the facility. SpaceX and Tesla have collectively committed $16.8 billion to the project, targeting one million wafer starts per month within ten years. Texas committed more than $16.8 billion in first-phase investment along with a $30 million Texas Enterprise Fund grant. HPSP agreed to supply one high-pressure hydrogen annealing tool to the R&D line, and Hanmi Semiconductor is in discussions on TC bonders; several Korean suppliers signed NDAs after Terafab staff visited their booths at SEMICON West.