SpaceX reported its first earnings since going public, with revenue nearly doubling in the April-June quarter to $7.8 billion from $4.1 billion a year earlier, beating Wall Street expectations, according to LSEG data. The growth was fueled by its Starlink satellite communications and AI businesses. Starlink revenue, which accounted for over half of total revenue, rose 66%, while revenue from SpaceX’s AI business surged about 250%. The company expects a $100-billion revenue run-rate by December, promises a less than one-year payback on new capital deployments for AI compute, and forecasts launching at least 1,000 next-generation V3 Starlink satellites within a year. However, capital expenditure ballooned to more than $18 billion from $2.83 billion a year earlier, with finance boss Bret Johnsen expecting similar spending for the next couple of quarters. AI capital spending alone hit $15.83 billion in the second quarter, up from $749 million a year earlier. CEO Elon Musk said, “We’re building AI compute capacity at scale faster than anyone else, we believe, and we’re significantly improving our AI models.” SpaceX shares fell 7.5% in after-hours trading after rising 9.4% during the day, and have declined 8% since its IPO in June. The company faces potential pressure from the expiry of its post-IPO lock-up period starting on Thursday.