ME News reports that on April 14 (UTC+8), previously undisclosed financial data from SpaceX's business segments revealed that only its satellite internet service, Starlink, is generating cash, while its rocket launch and AI divisions are both burning cash.
Starlink generated $11.4 billion in revenue last year, a 50% year-over-year increase, accounting for 61% of SpaceX's total revenue. Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, plus stock-based compensation) reached $7.2 billion, with a margin of 63%, up from 50% in 2024 and 41% in 2023. After deducting capital expenditures, Starlink’s free cash flow was approximately $3 billion, making it the only profitable segment within SpaceX.
Rocket launch revenue was $4.1 billion, growing only 8%, with free cash flow approximately negative $3 billion. Most of SpaceX’s 160+ launches this year were for deploying its own Starlink satellites, leaving limited external customer demand. AI revenue (including the social platform X and the large model company xAI, which merged into SpaceX in February at a $250 billion valuation) was $3.2 billion, up 23%, but burned nearly $14 billion annually. For comparison, OpenAI and Anthropic burned approximately $9 billion and $4 billion last year, respectively—SpaceX’s AI division alone exceeds their combined burn rate. In terms of revenue scale and growth, xAI also lags significantly behind OpenAI and Anthropic.
The $3 billion in free cash flow generated by Starlink is far from enough to offset the losses from the other two businesses. SpaceX’s annual capital expenditures of $20.7 billion exceeded its total revenue, resulting in an overall free cash flow of approximately negative $14 billion. The Information previously reported that SpaceX incurred a net loss of nearly $5 billion last year.
SpaceX's most recent valuation of $1.25 trillion equates to 266 times its EBITDA, compared to 16 times for Meta, 25 times for Alphabet, 36 times for NVIDIA, and even Tesla, known for its high valuations, at just 119 times. SpaceX plans to go public in June this year, expected to be the largest IPO in history. The central question surrounding this IPO is clear: Can Starlink’s growth prospects offset the massive losses from its other two business lines?(Source: The Information)