How Much Cash Does SpaceX Have Left? Here's the Latest Update.

Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX) reported earnings last month (in case you hadn't heard), and the news was pretty good. SpaceX's revenue more than doubled year over year, and its earnings -- $0.35 per share -- came in at more than twice what Wall Street had predicted.

But there's one more number that's at least as important as these others.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

SpaceX spends big

With $14.6 billion in revenue reported in Q3 2026 versus only $5.6 billion in Q3 2025, SpaceX grew its revenue 161% year over year -- but this growth came at an enormous cost. Generating $14.6 billion in revenue required SpaceX to spend $19.6 billion in capital investment -- and that number grew 185% year over year.

Now, this sounds pretty scary. If SpaceX is spending money faster than it makes it, then that can't be good news, right? Well, it's not quite as simple as that.

SpaceX enjoyed its greatest revenue growth in the division that Elon Musk believes is SpaceX's most important: artificial intelligence (AI, or, as SpaceX now calls it, "super intelligence" -- "SI"). Unsurprisingly, most of SpaceX's capital spending was also in the SI division. But here's the thing:

SI capital investment more than tripled year over year, rising 245% to $16.4 billion. But SI revenue increased 830% year over year to $7.6 billion. In this all-important division, therefore, heavy capital investment appears to be generating a significant payoff in revenue growth. (And not just revenue -- SI operating profit also flipped from negative to positive in Q3.)

Can SpaceX afford to keep spending?

Strange as it feels to admit this, Elon Musk's big bet on AI may actually be paying off -- at least, that's how it appears based on this one quarter's financial results. There is, however, still the question of whether SpaceX has sufficient cash to keep this virtuous cycle of more capital investment leading to even more revenue growth going.

SpaceX's cash-flow statement shows that the company burned through $35 billion in negative free cash flow in the first nine months of 2026. Again, that sounds like a lot. (Annualized, it works out to nearly $47 billion in cash burned per year.) The good news for SpaceX is that, with just under $90 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities on its balance sheet, SpaceX has enough money to keep this up -- and keep growing its AI revenue faster than it grows its AI investments -- for two full years before it might need to take on debt or sell more stock to raise cash.

If you ask me, that's the number that SpaceX investors can rely on: With $90 billion in cash at its disposal, SpaceX is one of the best-funded AI operators out there. If anyone can survive long enough to see the AI business turn profitable, SpaceX can.

Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Space Exploration Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.