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Musk Pivots SpaceX to the Moon With 'Moonbase Alpha' and a Lunar Mass Driver

He casts a lunar city as a faster route than Mars to scale space-based AI compute.

Overview

  • SpaceX has absorbed xAI in a deal reported to value the combined company around $1.25 trillion, with an IPO reportedly under consideration.
  • Musk’s plan envisions building AI satellites on the Moon and launching them with an electromagnetic mass driver to seed deep‑space computing networks.
  • Reporting cites a target for an uncrewed lunar landing as early as March 2027 as part of the new focus.
  • He has outlined orbital data centers powered by near‑constant solar energy, targeting about 100–200 GW per year initially and a path toward roughly 1 TW per year.
  • Experts and coverage flag steep hurdles, including building multi‑mile tracks in abrasive lunar dust, generating immense power bursts, safeguarding fragile payloads, and transporting industrial hardware to the Moon.