Elon Musk has announced a major strategic shift at SpaceX, saying the company is now prioritising the construction of a “self-growing city” on the Moon, a goal he said could be achieved in less than a decade.
In a post on his X social media platform on Sunday, the SpaceX founder said the lunar project has overtaken his long-held ambition of establishing a human settlement on Mars, citing urgency around safeguarding humanity’s future.
“SpaceX still intends to start on a city on Mars within five to seven years,” Musk wrote, “but the overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster.”
Musk’s comments follow a Wall Street Journal report published on Friday, which said SpaceX had informed investors that it would now prioritise lunar missions, while attempting a trip to Mars at a later stage. According to the report, the company is targeting March 2027 for an uncrewed landing on the Moon.
The shift marks a notable change from Musk’s position last year, when he said SpaceX aimed to send an uncrewed mission to Mars by the end of 2026.
The renewed focus on the Moon comes amid intensifying geopolitical competition, particularly with China, as the United States races to return humans to the lunar surface this decade. Humans have not visited the Moon since NASA’s Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
SpaceX remains a central contractor in NASA’s Artemis programme and holds a $4 billion contract to land astronauts on the Moon using its Starship spacecraft. However, Musk signalled that NASA’s role in the company’s finances is diminishing.
On Monday, responding to a user on X, Musk said NASA would account for less than 5% of SpaceX’s revenue this year.
“Vast majority of SpaceX revenue is the commercial Starlink system,” he added.
Earlier on Sunday, Musk shared SpaceX’s first-ever Super Bowl advertisement, promoting its Starlink satellite internet service, underscoring the growing commercial focus of the company.
Less than a week ago, Musk also announced that SpaceX had acquired the artificial intelligence company xAI, which he also leads, in a deal that values SpaceX at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion.
Supporters of the acquisition say it could strengthen SpaceX’s ambitions to develop space-based data centres, which Musk believes are more energy-efficient than terrestrial facilities as global demand for computing power surges alongside AI development.
SpaceX is reportedly considering a public offering later this year that could raise as much as $50 billion, potentially making it the largest initial public offering in history.
Even as he reorients SpaceX’s long-term mission, Musk is also pushing a dramatic shift at his publicly traded electric vehicle company, Tesla. After helping to build the global EV market, Tesla plans to spend $20 billion this year as it pivots toward autonomous driving technology and humanoid robotics.
Boluwatife Enome
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