SpaceX shares fell significantly after the company released its first-ever earnings report, which highlighted substantial investment in AI infrastructure. The report showed that the company spent $18.4 billion on capital expenditures during the quarter, roughly a fifth of the $85.7 billion it raised in its June IPO, according to globalnews.ca.

AI Ambitions and Financial Strain

Despite the heavy spending, SpaceX’s AI business generated $2.6 billion in second-quarter revenue, up more than three-fold from a year earlier; However, the business remained loss-making on an operating basis. The company plans to maintain high spending levels over the next two quarters as it continues to expand AI compute capacity, Starship production, and next-generation Starlink satellites.

“New compute capital monetizes so fast it behaves more like cost of goods than capex,” said Michael Monaghan, portfolio manager of the Founders 100 ETF, which holds SpaceX shares. SpaceX executives believe demand for AI computing continues to outstrip supply and expect to end the year with more than two gigawatts of compute capacity.

Broader Market Reactions

While SpaceX’s shares declined, Tesla also faced a downturn after its Q2 earnings, Tesla stock dropped 4% after the company reported adjusted earnings of 33 cents a share, missing the 55-cent consensus, according to es.tradingview.com. Capital expenditure more than doubled to $5.79 billion, pushing free cash flow to negative $1.09 billion.

Tesla delivered a record 480,126 vehicles in the second quarter, up 25%, helping automotive revenue rise 23% to $20.52 billion; However, operating expenses climbed 47% to $4.35 billion, including a 49% increase in research and development spending to $2.37 billion. Operating income fell 57% to $398 million, while operating margin narrowed to 1.4% from 4.1%.

Global Market Impact

Asian markets also experienced declines, with South Korea’s KOSPI shedding 519.09 points to close at 8,411.21, and SK hynix led the decline, falling 8.4 percent, while Samsung Electronics dropped 5.3 percent, according to 네이트. The decline in Seoul traced directly to Apple’s announcement raising Mac and iPad prices by between one hundred and three hundred dollars, signaling that memory cost inflation had exceeded even Apple’s ability to absorb it.

In Japan, SoftBank Group fell 12.5 percent on the OpenAI IPO delay report, dragging the Nikkei 225 down 4.2 percent — Chinese equities also declined, with SMIC and Cambricon among the names under pressure.