Don’t expect SpaceX (SPCX) to surprise investors like Meta (META) did this week by saying it would issue new stock to help fund its AI buildout efforts.
“Importantly, in our discussion w/management, SPCX also said that it is not considering raising equity,” said JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth in a new post-earnings note on Friday. “Capital requirements are front and center across the market, and SPCX indicated it has a number of available pools of capital on the debt side.”
SpaceX gave investors a taste of what could be to come on the debt funding front in its earnings report this week.
Execs guided to $35 billion to $40 billion in capex for the fourth quarter. This would be a meaningful step-up from $19.6 billion in the third quarter, $18.4 billion in the second quarter and $10.1 billion in the first quarter.
SpaceX ended the quarter with $36.1 billion in debt.
On the earnings call, the company’s veteran CFO Bret Johnson didn’t seem fazed by the tremors in the debt markets of late on concerns over the financial health of neoclouds such as CoreWeave (CRWV) and Nebius (NBIS).
All systems go on the pursuit of capital, or so it appears.
SpaceX is reportedly eyeing a capital raise of $40 billion with financial powerhouses Goldman Sachs and Apollo.
“The earnings call served to amplify the enormous calls on capital that loom over the next few years (particularly in the AI segment),” Moffettnathson analyst Julie Zhu said. “SpaceX has moved at a frenetic pace over the last few months, closing the Cursor acquisition; announcing a new Starbase in Louisiana; winning yet another large IaaS contract; launching Starship flight 14; and purchasing Grain’s 800 MHz spectrum. Each of these announcements portends an enormous amount of spending, both capex and opex, ahead.”
Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance’s Executive Editor, host of the Sozzi Unleashed morning show, the ‘Power Players With Brian Sozzi’ podcast and a member of Yahoo Finance’s editorial leadership team.