SpaceX will post its third-quarter 2026 results after the market close on Tuesday, October 20, one day before Tesla reports on Wednesday, October 21. SpaceX announced the date on Friday. Tesla had already set its call for 5:30 p.m. Eastern.

It is the first time since SpaceX listed that Elon Musk’s two public companies report in the same week. Last quarter they were 13 days apart, with Tesla on July 22 and SpaceX on August 4. In that August report, SpaceX put $15.8 billion of its $18.4 billion in capital spending into AI.

SpaceX Brings A $15.8 Billion AI Bill Into Tuesday

SpaceX’s $15.8 billion in AI capital spending came in a quarter when its Connectivity segment, which includes Starlink, brought in $4.3 billion, up 66% from a year earlier. AI revenue was $2.6 billion, so the AI segment spent about six dollars of capital per dollar of revenue.

Total second-quarter revenue was $7.8 billion, up 92%, with a net loss of $541 million, according to the earnings release SpaceX filed with the SEC. Tuesday is only its second report since shares began trading on Nasdaq in June. The SpaceX investor release sets an audio-only webcast at 4:30 p.m. Eastern on ir.spacex.com, also streamed on X.

Tesla Follows With A Delivery Beat And A Margin To Explain

Tesla delivered 486,532 vehicles in the third quarter, ahead of the 461,974 consensus it compiled from analysts and up from 480,126 in the second quarter. The figure is still 2.1% below the 497,099 Tesla delivered in the third quarter of 2025.

Tesla’s Q2 report showed what the last delivery record cost: a 1.4% operating margin and a $1.1 billion free cash outflow, driven by $5.8 billion in capital spending on AI infrastructure and robotics. The two companies already share one AI project, the Terafab chip factory planned for Giga Texas. Tesla’s results webcast runs on ir.tesla.com.

EVXL’s Take

I expect Wednesday’s Tesla call to sound a lot like Tuesday’s SpaceX call, because Musk sells both companies on AI. SpaceX has a Connectivity business growing 66% a year beside its AI spending. Tesla has to show that its auto margin can play the same role.

SpaceX still lost $541 million last quarter and Tesla’s free cash flow was negative, so neither company is funding AI comfortably from its core business yet. Tesla’s auto gross margin and its capex guidance are the two numbers I’ll watch on Wednesday, more than anything on the robotaxi slides.

Sources: SpaceX Investor Relations, SpaceX Q2 2026 earnings release (SEC), Tesla Q3 2026 production and deliveries release, Tesla Form 8-K (SEC), Sawyer Merritt on X

EVXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.