SpaceX Stock Lifts Off After Musk's All-Hands Meeting and More Starlink Satellites — Barrons.com
By Patrick O'Donnell and Al Root
SpaceX stock surged Wednesday after CEO Elon Musk held an all-hands meeting for SpaceX employees where he discussed artificial-intelligence, Starlink, and the company's future.
The stock advanced 11% to $148.44 on Wednesday after closing Tuesday down 3.9% at $133.29. It was priced at $135 before it started trading on June 12.
The move came after Musk spoke with employees in an all-hands meeting Tuesday. He was characteristically optimistic: His goal is to make humanity a multi-planetary species. He projects that AI-based internet traffic will be 1,000 times human traffic in five years. He also mentioned that Starlink, SpaceX's space-based broadband product, had 22 million mobile subscribers.
That might surprise some investors: Starlink ended the second quarter with about 12 million fixed wireless internet customers. It doesn't appear that SpaceX has secretly launched a secret mobile phone. Musk is likely referring to partnerships with existing wireless companies for satellite-to-cell connectivity that fills in dead zones.
SpaceX didn't respond to a request for comment.
Anytime Musk talks wireless communications, the existing industry seems to get nervous. Shares of AT&T were down 1% while Verizon Communications stock declined 0.7%.
Musk's talk went beyond Starlink. AI is on his mind, too: "We must win in AI because the future is overwhelmingly AI and robots."
He wants SpaceX to have 10 gigawatts of AI compute up and running by the end of 2027. That's up tenfold from its recent AI compute capacity and could represent 15% to 20% of total U.S. AI compute capacity running — if Musk can pull it off.
SpaceX also launched 24 of its Starlink satellites to low-Earth-orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Tuesday night. The mission was SpaceX's 51st flight from the West Coast so far this year.
While talk of SpaceX's AI plans may steal the headlines, Starlink remains its financial engine — accounting for almost 70% of the company's total revenue.
The company's second-quarter earnings released last week showed its satellite business generated $4.29 billion for the three months ended June 30, 2026. By contrast, the AI compute and next-gen Starship hardware divisions posted operating losses, as heavy capital expenditures of $15.8 billion in the quarter were poured into building orbital data infrastructure and scaling new models.
Despite the success of Starlink, SpaceX stock has suffered since its June 16 $201.80 high. It had tumbled more than 30% from that record ahead of an end to the first lockup period for shares on Thursday. But the selloff that market watchers had predicted didn't occur. The next lockup period ends on Aug. 20 and investors will be positioning their portfolios ahead of that.
Write to Patrick O'Donnell at patrick.odonnell@barrons.com
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