SpaceX has reported a 92% rise in revenue for the April-June quarter, in its first earnings since going public, buoyed by strong growth in its Starlink satellite-internet and AI businesses.
It reported revenue of $7.8bn, compared with $4.1bn a year earlier.
Second-quarter revenue beat expectations of $6.93bn, according to LSEG data. The company posted a net loss of $541mn attributable to shareholders for the three months ended June 30.
The company said it invested $18.37bn in AI infrastructure, Starship and Starlink expansion.
The company's stock has declined 8% since its record-breaking initial public offering in June that valued the company at about $1.75tn. The stock could face additional pressure from the expiry of SpaceX's post-IPO lock-up period starting on Thursday, which may unleash a wave of insider and early-investor shares on the market.
Starlink and SpaceX's broader connectivity operations remain the company's primary financial engine, underpinning CEO Elon Musk's push to build an AI-first business that extends beyond renting compute capacity to developing frontier models, consumer and enterprise software, and, eventually, data centers in space.
The company's satellite-internet unit has continued to expand its global subscriber base, aided by launches of additional satellites and a growing range of consumer, enterprise, aviation, maritime and government services.
But that expansion has come with tradeoffs: average revenue per user (ARPU) has dropped as SpaceX has entered more international markets and rolled out lower-priced plans.
Investors are watching whether SpaceX can maintain growth while improving the economics of its network, particularly as it spends heavily to expand coverage, increase capacity and develop direct-to-device mobile services.
SpaceX's AI business, which includes xAI, Grok, and social-media platform X, and a rapidly expanding data center operation, has been its biggest area of investment. The business is generating revenue from compute contracts with Anthropic, Alphabet's Google and Reflection AI, though a portion of its recurring revenue has yet to be recognized.
Operating losses at the AI business have mounted, and SpaceX has cautioned that the AI unit will require sustained investment before it can generate profits consistently.
Starship, SpaceX's next-generation reusable rocket system, is yet to enter commercial service but is expected to enable deployment of higher-bandwidth Starlink satellites and orbital AI-computing infrastructure.
The company's ability to turn Starship into a reliably reusable vehicle is central to its longer-term strategy. Investors have closely watched for updates on testing progress, launch cadence, reusability milestones and the vehicle's satellite-deployment capabilities.
Separately, SpaceX said that it had partnered with Nvidia to use its chips in the Starmind AI1 orbital compute satellites.
The space segment, which includes commercial launches, government missions and development of Starship remains a significant source of costs and uncertainty.
Disney
Disney reported better-than-expected profits Wednesday, citing a strong performance in its theme park business amid lingering worries about macroeconomic weakness.
The entertainment giant's third-quarter profits came in at $2.6bn, about half the level compared with the year-ago period, which was boosted by a large one-time tax benefit.
Revenues rose 6.8% to $25.2bn.
Disney pointed to growth across its "Experiences" business, saying Walt Disney World had a "standout quarter" and that forward booking at the US theme park in Florida "remain robust."
The parks division had been seen as potentially vulnerable due to inflation that has weighed on consumers.
However, the company acknowledged a slowdown in the number of international visitors to its US venues.
Disney scored higher revenues in its entertainment business behind growth in streaming subscriptions.
While the company praised the box office performance of "Toy Story 5" and the "The Devil Wears Prada 2," both "Star Wars: The Mandalorian" and "Gorgu" underperformed.
However Disney cited upside in theme park attendance and retail products built around the franchises.
In parallel with the earnings, Disney announced a new venture with TikTok that will allow fans and creators to use Disney content to make short videos that will be broadcast on both TikTok and Disney's streaming platform.
Siemens Energy
German turbine-maker Siemens Energy said Wednesday that its core profit had tripled as the company gains from surging electricity demand driven by the AI boom.
Excluding one-offs such as last year's sale of a business in India, Siemens Energy's profit surged to €1.62bn ($1.87bn) in the three months to end-June, up from €497mn in the period last year.
Order intake — a measure of future sales — rose 8.5% to almost €18bn for the quarter, the company said, leaving it with a total backlog of work worth €162bn.
"Global demand for electricity — and consequently for our products — remained strong," chief executive Christian Bruch said in a statement. "We delivered record orders, revenue, and profitability."
Electricity consumption at US data centres is projected to more than triple by 2035, according to the International Energy Agency, and already accounts for six to 8% of US electricity use.
The massive build-out has boosted suppliers like Siemens Energy as well as German semiconductor-maker Infineon, which announced alongside its own results Wednesday the signature of contracts worth billions of euros with data centre customers.
AMD
AMD forecast quarterly revenue above Wall Street estimates on Tuesday, banking on strong demand for its chips from massive data-center capacity expansions to power AI technologies.
Shares of the Santa Clara, California-based company, however, fell over 8% in extended trading.
The company is regarded as chip giant Nvidia's closest rival in the market for graphics processing units, as major technology companies and governments worldwide ramp up spending on AI infrastructure.
AMD has stepped up its AI product launches and moved beyond selling individual chips to offering AI systems that combine processors, networking gear and related hardware, giving customers an integrated AI infrastructure option and allowing it to better rival Nvidia's rack-scale offerings.
The company expects third-quarter revenue of about $13bn, plus or minus $300mn, while analysts estimate $12.52bn, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Adjusted gross margin is expected to be about 56%, largely in line with the estimate.
Second-quarter revenue rose 50% to $11.54bn, beating the estimate of $11.28bn. Data-center revenue more than doubled to $6.72bn, also exceeding expectations of $6.48bn.
Adjusted profit came in at $1.66 per share, ahead of the estimated $1.62. At AMD's AI event in July, CEO Lisa Su said the company's second-generation Helios AI servers, featuring the MI455X AI accelerator and "Venice" processor made by TSMC, are in full production and would begin shipping in the coming months.
McDonald's
McDonald's reported slower sales growth in the US market in the second quarter as executives blamed too many simultaneous promotional offers, including a World Cup campaign that disappointed.
The fast-food chain said it remains committed to a value-oriented menu that has resonated in recent years amid inflation-weary consumers in its home market and overseas.
But US restaurants were overwhelmed in the just-finished quarter with "too many deployments," according to McDonald's Chief Executive Christopher Kempczinski.
"We don't have a strategy problem," Kempczinski said on a conference call with analysts. "We simply didn't execute at the level we needed to in the second quarter."
Profits edged up 5% to $2.4bn, while revenues rose four % to $7.1bn.
But comparable sales in the US grew just 0.8%, much below the 3.9% posted in the first quarter. The average check size increased in the US, but guest counts fell.
Executives said McDonald's World Cup promotions had underperformed versus expectations, while suggesting that inconsistent implementation of value-oriented promotional deals was a bigger factor.
This included a campaign centered on selling 10 items for under $3. Compared with promotions offering a meal combination around a fixed price, the under $3 drive left stores with more freedom on what to include.
As a result, some franchisees opted for profit over market share, diluting the lift from the campaign. On top of that, McDonald's also pulled back on some digital offers from earlier in the year.
