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SpaceX Built an AI Business. Its Best Customers Are Grok’s Competitors.

SpaceX is quietly renting computing power to the very companies trying to outcompete its own AI chatbot, and the landlord strategy is pulling in billions. The question is whether Google and Anthropic will keep paying rent or build their own…

By Chris Lange
Published October 8, 2026, 5:00pm ET · 3 min read

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A satellite orbits Earth at night, its beam illuminating regions below, symbolizing the expansive network capabilities of Starlink and their influence on global digital connectivity. © Shutterstock

SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX | SPCX Price Prediction) runs two AI stories in opposite directions. Its Grok chatbot trails the leaders. A Momentic Marketing report published August 18, 2026, built on May 2026 Similarweb data, ranked Grok fifth of seven major assistants by worldwide web visits, behind ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and DeepSeek, and found it lost worldwide share over the past quarter. SpaceX rents computing power to Grok’s rivals. Gwynne Shotwell said on the August 4 earnings call:

“We’re rapidly expanding our compute capacity to meet our own needs as Grok expands, as well as those for other leading companies such as Google and Anthropic.”

Shares traded at $164.47 this morning, down 1.87% on the day and up 11.17% over the past month.

SPCX price target

What SpaceX Actually Sells in AI

The AI unit bundles cloud compute, Grok development and the X platform. It brought in $2.56 billion in Q2, up 247% from a year earlier. AI Solutions & Infrastructure generated $2.194 billion, while advertising declined to $367 million. Starlink’s Connectivity unit led at $4.29 billion. Launch services brought in $962 million.

Cloud Services Agreements total $14.1 billion in signed sales, with the first phase contributing $1.6 billion of incremental AI infrastructure revenue in the quarter.

Landlords Collect Rent Whoever Wins

A landlord collects rent regardless of which tenant wins. Elon Musk suggested Grok will occupy only a minority of SpaceX’s compute:

“I would expect maybe 10% of our compute to be used for grok training, something like that.”

Management claimed a less than one-year payback on new capital deployments for compute. The AI segment’s adjusted EBITDA turned positive for the first time at $1.1 billion.

SpaceX joins Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) and CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) as GPU landlords. Much of Oracle’s backlog is attributable to OpenAI. CoreWeave’s revenue has historically come mostly from Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and OpenAI, Hyperframe Research noted.

Capital Costs and Concentration Could Break the Model

Q2 capex hit $18.37 billion, with $15.83 billion for AI computing power. Management said the next two quarters to be very similar to the current quarter from a CapEx level perspective. The AI unit posted a $1.3 billion operating loss, and the company lost $541 million overall.

The tenant list is concentrated. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) runs its own data centers. If Google and Anthropic build sufficient capacity, they stop leasing. Musk said SpaceX expects a very small percentage of its chip supplier’s GPUs next year. The stock trades at a forward P/E of 200, leaving little room for disappointment.

Next Quarterly Report Will Test the Landlord Thesis

Management signed an additional $6.7 billion of cloud services revenue over six months starting in October. The next quarterly report should push AI Solutions & Infrastructure revenue above $2.194 billion, Cloud Services Agreements above $14.1 billion, and capacity above 1.4 GW on track for over 2 gigawatts by year-end. If all three occur, the landlord thesis holds. If infrastructure revenue stalls while AI capex stays near $15.8 billion quarterly, it breaks.

SPCX price scenario

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Chris Lange

Chris Lange is a financial and geopolitical writer with more than a decade of experience covering a myriad of topics. He has published thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St., with past coverage focused heavily on stocks, IPOs, healthcare, defense, global affairs, and technology.

His work has been quoted, or referenced by a number of outlets including Business Insider, USA Today, Yahoo Finance, MSN, The Motley Fool, and many other publications. A graduate of Southwestern University, he studied business with a focus on investments and has previous experience in banking and startups.

When not reading or writing the news, he is following his passion for Lacrosse, playing chess, or building solar projects with his dad.

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