SpaceX posts $5B net loss after xAI merger, but core space business generates $8B EBITDA
Key Points
- SpaceX's core space business generated $8B in EBITDA in 2025, but the consolidated company posted a $5B net loss after the February merger with xAI, which consumed $13B in capital expenditures.
- xAI's capital spending exceeds SpaceX's rocket and satellite divisions combined by 50%, reflecting the chip infrastructure costs of AI data centers versus traditional aerospace manufacturing.
- SpaceX plans a June IPO where public investors gain exposure to a profitable launch business while financing Musk's ambitions to launch orbital data centers powered by Starlink.
Summary
SpaceX posted an $18.5B revenue and nearly $5B net loss in 2025, a figure that consolidates the company's performance with xAI following the February merger. The loss was driven almost entirely by xAI spending; SpaceX's core space business—rocket launches and Starlink satellite internet—generated roughly $8B in EBITDA, a solidly profitable operation.
The consolidated company produced $6.5B in adjusted EBITDA once the AI division is factored in. Depreciation of chips, rockets, and satellites was the largest single expense at $6.6B, followed by stock-based compensation and interest costs near $2B.
The real story in the numbers is capital allocation. xAI's division consumed $13B in capital expenditures—50% more than SpaceX's rocket and satellite divisions combined. The contrast is stark: building data centers for AI training requires spending at a speed that rocket and satellite manufacturing cannot match, despite the physical scale of those operations. As the hosts note, purchasing a single advanced lithography machine from ASML can cost $400M, making chip infrastructure capital-intensive in ways that traditional aerospace manufacturing is not.
The IPO pitch frames a familiar Musk pattern. SpaceX is preparing a June public offering—potentially the largest IPO of its time—in which public investors will essentially finance his AI ambitions in order to gain exposure to a proven, cash-generative space business. The merger creates a vertical stack: Starlink's launch capacity and cost advantage could eventually support Musk's stated goal of launching solar-powered data centers into orbit, further compressing AI infrastructure costs.
SpaceX dominates the commercial launch market by a wide margin, with far more payloads reaching orbit than any competitor. Launch demand remains unconstrained—more companies are entering space than the industry can supply rockets for. That dominance, combined with Starlink's orbital infrastructure, gives SpaceX a structural edge in the race to reduce compute costs if the orbital data center thesis works.