--- title: "SpaceX Soars 13% After Analyst Upgrade Says AI Spending Could Pay Back in Under a Year" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/295273839.md" description: "SpaceX shares surged approximately 13% following an Argus Research upgrade to 'Buy' with a $160 price target. The analyst cited rapid payback on AI infrastructure investments, echoing CFO Bret Johnsen's comment that returns occur in under a year. This optimism follows initial investor concern over $18.4 billion in Q2 capital expenditures, as new cloud contracts and a 247% jump in AI segment revenue shift focus from spending to profitability." datetime: "2026-08-07T19:42:20.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/295273839.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/295273839.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/295273839.md) --- # SpaceX Soars 13% After Analyst Upgrade Says AI Spending Could Pay Back in Under a Year **SpaceX** (NASDAQ:SPCX) shares jumped roughly 13% Friday after Argus Research turned bullish on the economics of the company’s massive artificial intelligence buildout. Argus analyst **Steven Silver** upgraded the stock to Buy from Hold with a $160 price target, saying the firm is “encouraged” by the rapid payback on SpaceX’s AI investments. The call echoes CFO **Bret Johnsen**, who said on Tuesday’s earnings call the company is “getting less than a one-year payback” on AI compute spending. ## Why The Upgrade Matters Just two days earlier, investors punished SpaceX after its first earnings report as a public company revealed roughly $18.4 billion of second-quarter capital expenditures, with about $15.8 billion tied to AI infrastructure. The debate now appears to be shifting from how much SpaceX is spending to how quickly that spending may generate returns. ## Wall Street Rethinks The Same Numbers Argus’s rethink isn’t based on new company disclosures. The figures underpinning its upgrade were released Tuesday. SpaceX reported signing $14.1 billion of new cloud contracts in the second quarter, and Johnsen said on the call it signed another $6.7 billion in the opening weeks of the third. The entire company’s second-quarter revenue was $7.8 billion. AI segment revenue jumped 247% year over year to approximately $2.6 billion, driven primarily by the new cloud agreements rather than SpaceX’s Grok models. The segment still posted a roughly $1.3 billion operating loss, though adjusted EBITDA turned positive for the first time. The rally also comes a day after roughly 911.5 million previously locked-up shares became eligible for sale. Despite fears that the additional supply could pressure the stock, SpaceX rose Thursday, with more than 255 million shares changing hands, according to Bloomberg. ## Traders Don’t Expect Musk To Win The Model Race Polymarket traders give Elon Musk’s xAI just a 3% chance of having the best AI model at year-end, in a market with more than $550,000 in trading volume. Anthropic leads at 68%, ahead of OpenAI at 13% and Google at 8%. SpaceX’s disclosed compute customers include Google and Anthropic, meaning the labs ranked ahead of Grok are also paying SpaceX for computing power. Prediction markets don’t expect Musk to win the AI model race, but SpaceX investors may increasingly be betting that he doesn’t have to. _Image: Shutterstock_ **Read Also: Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Google Are 'Collectively Overinvesting' In AI: 'That's Betting, Not Investing,' Says 'Dean of Valuation'** ### Related Stocks - [SPCX.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SPCX.US.md) - [SPCF.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SPCF.US.md) - [SPAL.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SPAL.US.md) - [SPCH.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SPCH.US.md) - [SPCU.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SPCU.US.md) - [SNK.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SNK.US.md) - [SSPC.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SSPC.US.md) - [LOFF.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/LOFF.US.md) - [GOOGL.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/GOOGL.US.md) - [GOOG.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/GOOG.US.md) - [MSFT.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/MSFT.US.md) - [AMZN.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AMZN.US.md) - [META.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/META.US.md) ## Related News & Research - [Elon Musk's SpaceX Lands $1.22 Billion Investment From Norway’s $2.3 Trillion Sovereign Wealth Fund](https://longbridge.com/en/news/295666134.md) - [SpaceX Bets on AI as Musk Expects AI Revenue to Surpass All Other Business](https://longbridge.com/en/news/295626882.md) - [SpaceX officially closes its Cursor acquisition](https://longbridge.com/en/news/296004942.md) - [Elon Musk Says AI Will Be SpaceX's Biggest Business by September: Does the Math Check Out?](https://longbridge.com/en/news/295681919.md) - [SpaceXAI Launches Grok Bot Enterprise Agents: Cross-App Collaborative AI Teams Narrow Gap With OpenAI](https://longbridge.com/en/news/295568310.md)