Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund Takes Its First SpaceX Stake as the Company's AI Spending Spree Intensifies

Norway's sovereign fund discloses $1.22B SpaceX stake as Q2 revenue jumps 92% but AI spending sextuples to $18.4B, pressuring shares.

The world's largest sovereign wealth fund has quietly become a shareholder in Elon Musk's space and infrastructure empire. Norges Bank Investment Management, which oversees roughly $2.3 trillion in assets, disclosed a $1.22 billion position in SpaceX as of June 30 — its first-ever investment in the company. The stake represents just 0.05 percent of the business, but the symbolism is significant: a cautious, long-horizon institution has decided to back a stock that has been anything but calm since its June debut.

The disclosure lands at a moment of stark contrast. Operationally, SpaceX is firing on all cylinders. Financially, its share price is still wrestling with the consequences of a massive artificial-intelligence buildout that has investors split between long-term conviction and near-term caution.

A Quarter That Beat Expectations — and Then Some

The second-quarter numbers, released earlier this month, painted a picture of a company outgrowing its own forecasts. Revenue hit $7.81 billion, a 92 percent jump from the $4.1 billion posted a year earlier and comfortably ahead of the $6.93 billion consensus estimate. Adjusted EBITDA surged 191 percent to $3.5 billion.

The bottom line also improved markedly. The net loss narrowed to $541 million from roughly $1 billion, translating to a per-share loss of 9 cents — far better than the 26-cent deficit analysts had penciled in.

Connectivity remains the engine room. The Starlink-focused segment grew revenue 66 percent to $4.3 billion and was the only division to generate an operating profit, contributing $1.66 billion. Subscriber numbers doubled year over year to 12 million. The space segment, meanwhile, advanced 29 percent to $962 million in revenue but swung to an operating loss of $542 million as development costs for the Starship program continue to mount.

The AI Bet That's Costing Billions

The headline-grabbing figure, however, is the capital expenditure line. Investment spending more than sextupled year over year to $18.37 billion, with $15.83 billion of that funneled into AI infrastructure. The AI segment itself grew revenue 247 percent to $2.56 billion, though it remains loss-making with an operating deficit of $1.26 billion — a marked improvement from the $2.47 billion loss recorded in the prior quarter.

That spending spree triggered an immediate market reaction: shares fell roughly 8 percent in after-hours trading when the numbers were released. The stock has since recovered some ground, closing Friday at €120.96, down 1.2 percent on the day but up 5.1 percent for the week. Over 30 days, the gain is a more modest 2.7 percent.

The company's cash position, however, suggests it can afford the ambition. SpaceX ended the quarter with $93.5 billion in cash and equivalents, a leap from $24.7 billion at the end of the first quarter. Debt and finance leases rose to $36.8 billion from $22 billion. The order book stood at $47.5 billion.

Cursor Deal Closes, Guidance Comes Into View

Management has also been busy on the deal-making front. The $60 billion acquisition of AI company Cursor was completed on Thursday, deepening SpaceX's footprint in data centers and artificial intelligence. During the earnings call, Musk said the internal target of $1 trillion in annual revenue has been pulled forward from 2031 to 2030, with a chance — though not a certainty — of hitting that mark by 2029.

The company also issued its first formal guidance. For the third quarter, SpaceX expects connectivity revenue to grow more than 50 percent to $4.7 billion, with an operating margin of 37.5 percent.

A Texas Chip Plant and a Packed Launch Schedule

Some of the capital outlay is earmarked for a joint venture with Tesla: the "Terafab" chip factory in Grimes County, Texas. The initial investment is set at $16.8 billion, with the project potentially reaching $119 billion across multiple phases. The facility is expected to create at least 3,000 jobs and span more than 100 million square feet.

The launch calendar remains relentless. Over the weekend, two Falcon 9 rockets lifted off within 38.5 minutes of each other — a new record — carrying payloads for Globalstar and the US Space Force. Earlier in the week, a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral deployed 29 Starlink satellites, followed hours later by a launch from Vandenberg carrying 24 more, marking the 72nd and 73rd Starlink missions of the year.

The next major milestone is Flight 14 of the Starship system, scheduled for August 28, which will attempt the first catch of the upper stage by the launch tower. The previous test flight in July delivered mixed results: the booster landing went as planned, but only ten of thirteen engines reignited during reentry, with five still running at splashdown. The upper stage did successfully deploy 20 third-generation Starlink satellites as part of a realistic payload test.

Lock-Up Waves and a Stock Still Below Its Peak

The post-IPO share overhang remains a live issue. The first lock-up period expired on August 6, releasing roughly 911.5 million shares to trading — a day the stock nonetheless closed 6.1 percent higher. A further 319 million shares could be unlocked on August 20, with tranches of around 700 million each following in September and October.

The share price still sits about 38 percent below its 52-week high of €194.46, reached on June 16, and roughly 33 percent above the low of €91.04. With 30-day volatility running at 93 percent, the stock is not for the faint-hearted.

For Norges Bank, the entry point may look attractive from a long-term perspective. For everyone else, the tension is clear: a company delivering exceptional operational growth, backed by a blue-chip institutional investor, but one whose near-term trajectory is being shaped by enormous capital demands and a steady drip of share supply.