xAI burned $6.4B last year. SpaceX’s IPO filing shows why the spending is far from over

Elon Musk’s xAI mislaid $6.4 cardinal from operations connected conscionable $3.2 cardinal successful gross successful 2025, according to SpaceX’s IPO filings. And the losses are poised to grow. SpaceX’s filing reveals plans to standard Grok to “multiple trillions of parameters,” a melodramatic boost that volition apt necessitate important further compute spend.

Elon Musk merged his AI institution xAI — which had antecedently acquired his societal media level X (formerly Twitter) — with his rocket and outer institution SpaceX successful February earlier announcing that he’d instrumentality the combined institution nationalist this year. While AI competitors OpenAI and Anthropic are besides eyeing nationalist debuts successful 2026, SpaceX’s is expected to beryllium 1 of the largest successful past with a imaginable $1.75 trillion valuation. 

The filing marks the archetypal nationalist glimpses into xAI, and truthful X’s, financials. In 2024, xAI recorded a nonaccomplishment of $1.56 cardinal connected $2.62 cardinal successful revenue. By 2025, losses had ballooned to $6.4 cardinal connected $3.2 billion, meaning the spread betwixt what xAI earns and spends is widening. Meanwhile, rival (and customer) Anthropic reportedly expects a 130% gross leap to $10.9 cardinal successful the 2nd quarter, starring to its archetypal operating profit.

The leap successful gross from 2024 to 2025 came successful ample portion from “AI solutions and infrastructure revenue” totalling $465 million, which includes $365 cardinal successful X and Grok subscription revenue, and $88 cardinal successful information licensing. An further $116 cardinal came from advertising.

AI conception superior expenditures climbed from $12.7 cardinal successful 2025 to $7.7 cardinal successful the archetypal 4th of 2026 alone. That’s an annualized capex tally complaint of astir $30.8 billion, much than doubling year-over-year.

So far, that concern has resulted successful growing, but inactive limited, idiosyncratic numbers. Per the filing, SpaceX recorded 117 cardinal monthly progressive users for Grok AI features arsenic of March 2026, retired of 550 cardinal full MAUs crossed Grok and X combined. That implies lone one-fifth of the combined ecosystem is actively utilizing Grok AI features. 

Still, SpaceX intends to worker connected with Grok; its next-generation AI is expected to standard to “multiple trillions of parameters,” which the filing describes arsenic a “step alteration successful reasoning successful extent and wide intelligence.” It’s an ambitious target, and 1 that’s present recorded successful the audited annals of SEC history.

It’s besides a people that volition undoubtedly necessitate much investment. The SpaceX filing’s “use of proceeds” conception mentions an “expansion of our AI compute infrastructure.” Per the filing, xAI’s Colossus and Colossus II information centers — some of which came online successful 122 days and 91 days, respectively — collectively supply astir 1 gigawatt of compute power. These are some utilized for Grok’s grooming and inference. SpaceX claims that owning the compute infrastructure and vertically integrating crossed the AI stack lets them “train and iterate frontier models astatine little outgo and higher velocity.”

Another mode that SpaceX mightiness assuage capitalist fears astir spending is by performing grooming and inference connected orbital information centers, which Musk has promised to beryllium a overmuch cheaper alternate to terrestrial information centers. That sci-fi imaginativeness isn’t apt to hap for respective years, though. The filing says SpaceX intends to statesman deploying its orbital AI compute satellites arsenic aboriginal arsenic 2028 — the archetypal factual timeline acceptable for specified a launch.

“The aboriginal of AI volition beryllium determined by power of the carnal stack,” the filing reads.