As investors debate whether Space Exploration Technologies Corp’s (NASDAQ:SPCX) blockbuster valuation can be justified, one space economy expert says they may be focusing on the wrong metric.

The bigger story isn’t that SpaceX isn’t profitable. It’s that the company may be choosing not to be.

“It’s the Amazon play,” Micah Walter-Range, co-developer of the VettaFi Space Index tracked by the Procure Space ETF Procure Space ETF (NASDAQ:UFO), told Benzinga in exclusive email interview.

Profitability Vs. Growth

SpaceX’s lack of profits has become a key talking point following its public debut. But Walter-Range argues the company could potentially improve its bottom line today if it were willing to slow some of its most ambitious projects.

“Considering the recently announced revenue streams from data center capacity leases to Anthropic and Google, the AI side of the business could be profitable if it brings capex down to a level below revenue,” he said.

The same logic applies to the ...