Part of SpaceX’s headline third-quarter profit came from a markup on paper, not rockets or Starlink. In its Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on October 22, SpaceX disclosed a $561 million unrealized gain on its stake in Elon Musk’s tunneling company, The Boring Company, as CNBC first reported.
Where the gain came from
SpaceX accounts for its Boring stake using the fair value option. In September, Boring completed a new financing round with investors, and that observable price let SpaceX revalue its holding and record the increase in “other income (expense), net.” No cash changed hands. CNBC notes that Boring raised $3 billion last month at a $23 billion valuation, with backing from the United Arab Emirates, though the filing itself doesn’t name the round or price.
How big a piece of the profit
The gain accounted for more than half of SpaceX’s other income in the quarter, which totaled $1.025 billion. SpaceX reported Q3 net income of $4.404 billion on $14.575 billion in revenue, so the Boring markup was roughly 13% of the bottom line. For the first nine months of 2026, SpaceX still shows a net loss of $413 million.
The filing also explains why Boring isn’t consolidated: SpaceX is presumed to have significant influence but not control, because SpaceX’s CEO holds a controlling voting interest in Boring. Musk runs both. Boring was created inside SpaceX in 2017 and spun out a year later. SpaceX’s equity method investments, including Boring, were valued at $653 million at the end of September, up from $101 million at the end of 2025.
The disclosure lands as SpaceX and Tesla study a possible combination, putting extra attention on related-party ties among Musk’s companies.
Source: CNBC and SpaceX’s Q3 2026 Form 10-Q.