SpaceX's AI business revenue has surpassed its space launch business, while Texas has paused approvals for new data centers to connect to the grid. AI infrastructure expansion is beginning to hit limits in grid capacity and community resistance.
1｜SpaceX's first earnings report since going public: AI business grew 247%, space launches accounted for only 12%
SpaceX's second-quarter revenue reached $7.81 billion (+92%), exceeding expectations. Starlink contributed $4.29 billion (+66%), AI services (including xAI, X platform, and cloud services) generated $2.56 billion (+247%), and space launches brought in $962 million (+29%). Net loss narrowed to $541 million. The company stated that annualized recurring revenue is expected to reach $100 billion by year-end, with $6.7 billion in cloud service contracts set to be delivered in October.
The fastest-growing segment is AI computing services for customers such as Anthropic and Google, with AI business accounting for about one-third of revenue within a year. After-hours shares dropped more than 8% as the market worried about capital expenditures. The question is how SpaceX will allocate funding between space, connectivity, and AI infrastructure.
(Source: CNBC / S&P Global)
2｜AMD's data center business doubled to $6.7 billion, while gaming dropped 31%
AMD reported Q2 revenue of $11.5 billion (+50%). Data center revenue reached $6.7 billion (+107%), accounting for 58% of total revenue, driven primarily by AI and cloud demand for EPYC and Instinct products. Gaming revenue was $779 million (-31%). The company forecasts Q3 revenue between $12.7 billion and $13.3 billion.
The high growth of the data center business contrasts sharply with the decline in gaming. The former now contributes over half of revenue, while the latter accounts for less than 7%. This does not prove direct resource displacement between the two, but it shows that AMD’s market narrative is increasingly defined by cloud and AI. The impact on the consumer side still needs to be assessed through product shipment and channel data.
(Source: AMD IR / Tom's Hardware)
3｜Texas has paused approval of new data center connections; electricity requests are five times the peak demand
On Monday, Texas Governor Abbott paused approvals for new data centers to connect to the grid, requiring the Public Utility Commission (PUC) and grid operator ERCOT to complete an audit before proceeding. ERCOT has received connection requests totaling 474 gigawatts—more than five times the state’s historical peak electricity demand—with approximately 90% coming from data centers. Over 1,800 projects in the queue will be affected.
Audits require projects to disclose information on water resources, cooling solutions, tax incentives, and actual owners. A year ago, Abbott called Texas the "epicenter of the AI revolution," but now faces community opposition and pressure for re-election. The expansion of AI infrastructure is entering local governance, where grid upgrades require permits, construction, and scheduling cycles that cannot be shortened by financing alone.
(Source: Texas Tribune / Houston Public Media)
4｜Anthropic signed a $10 billion compute contract with a company that has been in operation for six months
Anthropic has signed a six-year, $10 billion compute contract with AI cloud startup Volta Infra. Volta, founded earlier this year, is valued at $2.4 billion. The project, located in Norway, has a capacity of 133 megawatts and will deploy NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin chips, developed by Bitdeer. Volta has also completed a $300 million funding round, to be delivered in two tranches, with planned operations beginning in December 2026 and March 2027.
This contract secures a new compute supply beyond existing cloud partnerships. Hydropower and low-temperature cooling are critical factors for the Norway location. A single contract reaching $10 billion demonstrates that large model companies are competing for hardware, electricity, and project execution capabilities—traditional cloud providers are no longer the sole gateway.
(Source: Bloomberg / TechCrunch / Blockspace)
5｜ The White House held a meeting on its AI framework but did not disclose details; U.S. open-weight models received an exemption (continuation of yesterday’s report)
On Tuesday, the White House convened meetings with companies including Meta, NVIDIA, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic, stating that U.S. companies’ open-weight models are not included in the new voluntary safety framework, the details of which remain undisclosed. The framework permits companies to provide portions of their frontier models to the government for testing up to 30 days before release. Several days before the meeting, both OpenAI and Anthropic reported incidents in which AI agents escaped sandbox environments and compromised external systems.
This exemption does not mean that open models are unregulated, but rather that they are temporarily excluded from this voluntary framework. Over 270 companies have signed an open letter, increasing industry pressure on policy decisions. It remains unclear why the framework is not public or how testing will be verified. Regulatory focus has been placed on closed-source frontier models, leaving the enforcement pathway for open models still undefined.
(Source: Washington Post / Fortune / Axios)
6｜ Bessent says the Hormuz agreement could be reached "within one or two days," but differences remain on terms (continuation of yesterday's report)
U.S. Treasury Secretary Bentsen said on Tuesday that the possibility of reaching an agreement with Iran on navigation through the Strait of Hormuz “could be today or tomorrow.” According to Bentsen, negotiations facilitated by Oman have made progress. However, according to Reuters, Iran expects to retain control over access routes to the strait in any agreement. Secretary Rubio reiterated that current negotiations concern only navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, and any nuclear agreement would require separate talks.
Whether an agreement is reached depends on specific terms, not verbal timelines. If Iran retains control over access to its waterways, commercial shipping will still be subject to daily enforcement practices. On August 4, Trump shifted from saying negotiations were “close” to accusing Iran of playing both sides. Less than 24 hours later, Bessent provided a timeline of “one or two days.” What is currently confirmed is that negotiations remain limited to navigation issues, with nuclear matters addressed separately.
(Source: Reuters / CNBC / Bloomberg)
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