Kids are back to school, which also means it's conference season on Wall Street, when executives meet with investors at events facilitated by brokers.

SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen spoke at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia and Technology Conference On Thursday. He dropped a few tidbits for investors.

Starship is Big

Starship is the largest rocket system humanity has built. It's also designed to be fully reusable, which will drive down the cost of putting things into orbit.

The 14th test flight of Starship should be this month, according to Johnsen, with the rocket deploying fully functional next-generation Starlink satellites. Starlink is SpaceX's space-based broadband product. The Starlink version three, or V3, satellites are larger and more capable than what SpaceX launches today on its Falcon 9 rockets.

Mobile Ambitions

V3 satellites will eventually help SpaceX compete with traditional wireless companies. Johnsen discussed SpaceX's mobile communications ambitions and said his company would evaluate needs for other assets to offer superior mobile service.

SpaceX might be coming to disrupt traditional phone networks, but it still could need ground-based assets such as cell towers to offer full service.

Orbital AI is the Future

Along with Starlink, Starship will be launching Starmind AI satellites into orbit. Johnsen said that orbital AI data centers will eventually be cheaper than running data centers on the ground. Operating in space may be difficult, but terrestrial data centers face their own problems, including cost inflation, community pushback, as well as power and water constraints.

Revenue

Orbital AI also isn't as far away as investors might expect. SpaceX hopes to launch Starmind satellites-on Starship-as soon as 2027. Meanwhile, SpaceX's terrestrial AI business is booming. Johnsen remains confident the company will be at a $100 billion "ARR" by the end of 2026.

ARR is annual recurring revenue, which has become Wall Street's favorite AI sales metric. It essentially annualizes current revenue metrics. So a $100 billion ARR means sales have grown to roughly $8.3 billion a month.

Wall Street currently projects about $100 billion in 2027 sales, with $66 billion coming from AI. That estimate might be light if Johnsen is right about the revenue run-rate at the end of this year.

Front and Center

All those data points matter to investors. The biggest takeaway from the conference might have been Johnsen's presence. Elon Musk companies aren't always front and center at traditional events. (They don't have traditional media relations staff.)

SpaceX appears keen to tell its story. Capital could be a reason. Wall Street estimates it will need hundreds of billions in additional financing to build out infrastructure and reach its AI and communications ambitions.

SpaceX stock was up 0.8% at $149.35 in premarket trading, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were both up about 0.5%.