Elon Musk said on Sunday that SpaceX has refocused its long-term strategy on building a “self-growing city” on the Moon, a goal he believes could be achieved in under a decade.
Posting on his X platform, Musk said SpaceX still plans to pursue his long-standing vision of establishing a city on Mars within the next five to seven years. However, he stressed that the Moon now takes priority, arguing that securing humanity’s future can be achieved faster through lunar development.
His remarks align with a recent Wall Street Journal report, which said SpaceX has told investors it will prioritize lunar missions before attempting a Mars landing. The company is reportedly targeting March 2027 for an uncrewed mission to the Moon. This marks a shift from Musk’s comments last year, when he said SpaceX aimed to send an uncrewed spacecraft to Mars by the end of 2026.
The renewed lunar focus comes as the United States faces growing competition from China in the race to return humans to the Moon this decade. No human has set foot on the lunar surface since NASA’s Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
Musk’s announcement follows SpaceX’s recent acquisition of artificial intelligence firm xAI, a deal that values SpaceX at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion. Supporters say the merger could strengthen SpaceX’s ambitions to build space-based data centers, which Musk argues are more energy-efficient than Earth-based facilities as demand for AI computing power accelerates.
SpaceX is also preparing for a potential public listing later this year, which Musk has suggested could raise as much as $50 billion, potentially making it the largest IPO ever.
On Monday, Musk added that revenue from NASA will account for less than 5% of SpaceX’s income this year. While SpaceX is a key contractor for NASA’s Artemis moon program—holding a $4 billion contract to land astronauts on the Moon using Starship—Musk emphasized that the company’s primary revenue source is its commercial Starlink satellite internet service. He also highlighted Starlink’s first Super Bowl advertisement, released earlier on Sunday.
Beyond SpaceX, Musk is steering Tesla in a new direction. After helping build the global electric vehicle market, Tesla plans to invest $20 billion this year to accelerate its push into autonomous driving and robotics. As part of this shift, Musk said Tesla is ending production of two vehicle models at its California factory to make room for manufacturing its Optimus humanoid robots.
