SpaceX vs Workday: Revenue, Profit and Business Model
SpaceX reported $18.7B of revenue in FY2025 and a net loss of $4.9B. Workday reported $9.6B of revenue in FY2026 and $693M of net income.
Latest financial snapshot
Financial summary
SpaceX
SpaceX revenue grew from $10.387 billion in 2023 to $14.015 billion in 2024 and $18.674 billion in 2025, but heavy Starship, Starlink, and AI spending produced a $4.937 billion FY2025 net loss. In Q2 2026, its first quarter reported as a public company, revenue was $7.8 billion (up 92%), adjusted EBITDA was $3.5 billion, net loss was $541 million, and backlog was $47.5 billion. The IPO raised $85.7 billion and a $25 billion bond sale added more liquidity. In late September 2026 the stock traded near $145, for a market capitalization around $1.9 trillion.
Workday
Workday reported fiscal 2026 revenue of $9.552B, up 13.1%, with subscription revenue of $8.833B, up 14.5%. GAAP operating income was $721M after $303M of restructuring costs, and GAAP net income was $693M, or $2.59 per diluted share. In Q2 fiscal 2027 (quarter ended July 31, 2026), revenue rose 12.8% to $2.649B and subscription revenue rose 13.9% to $2.471B. GAAP operating margin was 11.8% and non-GAAP operating margin was 31.1%. Diluted EPS of $2.57 included a one-time $1.52 per share tax benefit from an internal IP transfer. The company bought back about $1.3B of stock in the quarter and the board added a $4.0B repurchase authorization.
Revenue and profit by year
SpaceX
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $18.7B | -$4.9B | -26.4% | +33.2% | Source |
| FY2024 | $14B | $18M | 0.1% | +34.9% | Source |
| FY2023 | $10.4B | -$4.6B | -44.6% | — | Source |
Workday
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | $9.6B | $693M | 7.3% | +13.1% | Source |
| FY2025 | $8.4B | $526M | 6.2% | +16.4% | Source |
| FY2024 | $7.3B | $1.4B | 19.0% | +16.8% | Source |
| FY2023 | $6.2B | -$367M | -5.9% | +21.0% | Source |
| FY2022 | $5.1B | $29M | 0.6% | +19.0% | Source |
| FY2021 | $4.3B | -$282.4M | -6.5% | +19.0% | Source |
| FY2020 | $3.6B | -$480.7M | -13.3% | +28.5% | Source |
| FY2019 | $2.8B | -$418.3M | -14.8% | +31.7% | Source |
| FY2018 | $2.1B | -$321.2M | -15.0% | +36.1% | Source |
| FY2017 | $1.6B | -$384.7M | -24.4% | — | Source |
Where the revenue comes from
SpaceX
- Launch services
Not formally reported
Commercial, civil, and national-security launches priced by rocket, payload, orbit, and service type.
- Starlink consumer broadband
Not formally reported
Monthly subscriptions and terminals for residential and mobile broadband.
- Enterprise and government connectivity
Not formally reported
Starlink enterprise, aviation, maritime, backup connectivity, Starshield, and government services.
- AI infrastructure
Not formally reported
Compute and cloud services from SpaceX's AI segment, formed through the xAI combination; $2.6B revenue in Q2 2026.
Workday
- Subscription services
About 92% of fiscal 2026 revenue
Recurring fees for HCM, Financial Management, planning, payroll, learning, and AI products; $8.833B in fiscal 2026.
- Professional services
About 8% of fiscal 2026 revenue
Deployment, training, and advisory services that support customer implementations.
Business model and strategy
SpaceX
How it makes money
SpaceX earns money in three segments. Space sells launches on Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, plus Dragon cargo and crew missions for NASA, the U.S. government, and commercial customers ($962 million in Q2 2026).
Growth strategy
SpaceX's growth plan has four parts: add Starlink subscribers and raise enterprise, aviation, and mobile revenue; launch higher-capacity Starlink V3 satellites on Starship; expand national-security work through Starshield and launch contracts (over $6 billion in U.S. government awards in Q2 2026); and scale AI compute capacity, which grew from 400 megawatts a year earlier to 1.4 gigawatts at the end of Q2 2026.
Competitive advantage
SpaceX's advantage is reusability combined with vertical integration. It builds its own engines, avionics, rockets, and satellites, and reflies Falcon 9 boosters many times, which lowers its marginal launch cost below rivals that still expend most hardware. Being its own largest launch customer lets it deploy Starlink at a cadence no other operator has matched, and Starlink revenue then funds Starship.
Workday
How it makes money
Most of Workday's revenue comes from multi-year cloud subscriptions. In fiscal 2026, subscription revenue was $8.833B of $9.552B total, about 92%. The rest is professional services: deployment, training, and advisory work, much of which is handled alongside implementation partners. Customers usually start with HCM or Financial Management and later add planning, payroll, recruiting, learning, and AI agent products.
Growth strategy
Workday is pushing AI agents built on its HR and finance data, adding integration and learning capabilities through acquisitions (Paradox, Sana, Pipedream), selling Financial Management into its HCM base, and expanding industry-specific offerings. It is pairing that with cost cuts and large share buybacks.
Competitive advantage
Workday's main advantage is a single data model shared across HR, payroll, finance, and planning, which it has run as a multi-tenant cloud service from the start. That gives AI agents clean access to employee and financial records, and Workday argues its agents are safer because they act through the same business-process rules and permissions as human users.
Questions about SpaceX vs Workday
Which company has higher revenue — SpaceX or Workday, Inc.?
SpaceX reported $18.7B (FY2025), while Workday, Inc. reported $9.6B (FY2026). By last reported revenue, SpaceX is the larger business, with Workday, Inc. reporting a smaller revenue base. Note: these are from different fiscal years and are not a direct like-for-like comparison.
What is the market cap of SpaceX vs Workday, Inc.?
SpaceX's market capitalisation stands at $1.92T, while Workday, Inc.'s is $51.0B. SpaceX carries the higher market valuation, reflecting investors' expectations of its future earnings power relative to Workday, Inc..
Which is more financially efficient — SpaceX or Workday, Inc.?
SpaceX generates $826k / employee in revenue per employee, while Workday, Inc. generates $453k / employee. SpaceX shows higher revenue efficiency per headcount, though this reflects business model differences — capital-light software companies routinely outperform labour-intensive manufacturers on this metric.
How do SpaceX and Workday, Inc. make money?
SpaceX and Workday, Inc. generate revenue in fundamentally different ways. SpaceX: SpaceX earns money in three segments. Workday, Inc.: Most of Workday's revenue comes from multi-year cloud subscriptions.
Which company is valued higher relative to revenue — SpaceX or Workday, Inc.?
On a price-to-sales (P/S) basis, SpaceX trades at 102.8x P/S and Workday, Inc. at 5.3x P/S. SpaceX commands a higher revenue multiple, typically indicating that investors expect faster growth or higher future margins compared to Workday, Inc.. A higher multiple is not inherently better — it may also signal that the stock is priced for perfection.
Is SpaceX bigger than Workday, Inc.?
By last reported revenue, SpaceX ($18.7B (FY2025)) is the larger company compared to Workday, Inc. ($9.6B (FY2026)). Revenue scale is one dimension of size — market capitalisation, employee count, and geographic reach are also relevant depending on the context.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the SpaceX vs Workday overview