Josh Gilbert, Lead Analyst at etoro
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – August 2026: Most listed space companies around the world are still burning cash in pursuit of the dream, so it says something that Space42, the Middle East’s flagship space firm just reported a USD$6.3 billion contracted backlog and more than USD$1.1 billion in the bank. Space42’s first-half results, with revenue up 15% and satellite-to-phone services on standard devices targeted for commercial rollout by the end of 2026, are the kind most space companies globally can’t show, and that’s what makes the regional story worth a closer look according to Josh Gilbert, Lead Analyst at etoro.
SpaceX’s first result as a listed company showed revenue of USD$7.8 billion, up 92% on a year ago, yet the company still lost more than USD$500 million and spent an extraordinary USD$18 billion on capex in a single quarter. The shares fell despite beating expectations, and that reaction says plenty about whom investors have patience for, because markets this year have been rewarding companies that can show cash coming back and punishing those that only spend it.
Space still makes up a small sliver of portfolios, although SpaceX as the poster child has likely changed that. Valuations are the sticking point for space companies, because most are spending aggressively ahead of profits and only a handful trade on a meaningful earnings multiple, so traditional metrics won’t tell you much. What they miss is how fast the picture can change, because in this sector one big contract or breakthrough can rewrite earnings expectations within a couple of quarters.
That’s exactly why the model in this region stands out. Contracts that run 15 years or more with a government counterparty are almost unheard of in this industry, and they give investors something the rest of the sector can’t, which is knowing where the revenue comes from years in advance. Space still gets talked about as tomorrow’s story, but the technology already sits behind navigation, telecommunications, logistics and agriculture. It’s the companies monetising it that are young. This is where the comparison to AI firms fits: with heavy investment meeting enormous growth expectations, space companies are just a few years behind where the leading AI names are now.
Investors should judge these companies the same way they’d judge any other business, on free cash flow, backlog and margins, because launch headlines grab attention but tell you very little about who actually makes money. This is a sector with a long way to run, and the companies worth backing will be the ones proving it in the numbers, not on the launchpad.
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