Alphabet’s Profit Gets $8 Billion Boost From SpaceX Investment

Alphabet Inc. said its first-quarter profit was boosted by $8 billion in unrealized gains from an investment in a private company. That company is Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., according to a person familiar with the matter.

Internet search giant Google, owned by Alphabet, has been a major investor in SpaceX since at least 2015, when it joined Fidelity Investments in a $1 billion investment for a combined stake of about 10%, Bloomberg reported at the time. In December 2024, SpaceX and investors agreed to buy insider shares in a transaction that valued Musk’s rocket and satellite maker at about $350 billion, Bloomberg reported.

Alphabet’s net income in the quarter that ended in March rose to $34.5 billion, or $2.81 a share. Though profit topped Wall Street’s average projection of $2.01 per share, earnings included an $8 billion “unrealized gain on our non-marketable equity securities related to our investment in a private company,” according to a filing Thursday. Alphabet didn’t name the company.

An Alphabet spokesperson declined to comment.