Don’t expect SpaceX (SPCX) to surprise investors like Meta (META) did this week by announcing it would issue a new class of nonvoting stock to help fund its AI build-out.
“Importantly, in our discussion w/management, SPCX also said that it is not considering raising equity,” JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth wrote 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 capital expenditures 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 recent tremors in the debt markets amid 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. (Disclosure: Yahoo is a portfolio company of funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management.)
“The earnings call served to amplify the enormous calls on capital that loom over the next few years (particularly in the AI segment),” Moffettnathanson 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.”
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