SpaceX Targets Early 2028 for D2D Service Launch

SpaceX has reported a net income of $4.4 billion for the third quarter of 2026, marking a significant recovery from a $1.1 billion loss recorded during the same period last year. Total revenue increased by 161% to $14.6 billion, driven primarily by its expanding artificial intelligence division. This represents the company’s second financial report since its initial public offering in June.

The Super Intelligence segment, formerly categorized as AI, contributed roughly $6.7 billion of the $9 billion revenue increase, with its own revenue climbing to $7.6 billion from $813 million. SpaceX attributed this rapid expansion to new cloud service agreements, the recent acquisition of Cursor, and the increasing adoption of its Grok model.

Operating income for the quarter reached $2.8 billion, a shift from a $273 million loss a year ago, while adjusted EBITDA rose 306% to $8.8 billion. Connectivity revenue grew by 69% to $5.2 billion, and operating income for that segment rose 99% to $2.4 billion. Starlink reached 13.6 million consumer broadband subscribers, an increase of 1.6 million during the quarter. Furthermore, the direct-to-device service Starlink Mobile surpassed 22 million monthly users, a 37% sequential increase.

Despite these strong quarterly results, SpaceX remains loss-making for the 2026 year-to-date period, with a net loss of $413 million over the first nine months. The company announced plans to activate its direct-to-device (D2D) service in early 2028, following the deployment of the second-generation Starlink Mobile constellation in 2027 and the full integration of newly acquired spectrum assets.