Elon Musk announced that SpaceX is now prioritizing the creation of a “self-growing city” on the Moon, aiming to achieve it within the next decade. While SpaceX still plans to pursue Musk’s long-term goal of a Mars city in five to seven years, he emphasized on X (formerly Twitter) that “the overriding priority is securing the future of civilization, and the Moon is faster.”

This aligns with a recent Wall Street Journal report that SpaceX told investors it would focus on lunar missions first, targeting an uncrewed Moon landing in March 2027, and delay crewed Mars missions. Last year, Musk had aimed for an uncrewed Mars mission by the end of 2026. The U.S. faces stiff competition from China in returning humans to the Moon, which hasn’t been visited since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Musk also revealed SpaceX’s acquisition of his AI company xAI, valuing SpaceX at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion. Supporters view the move as a way to advance space-based data centers, which Musk believes are more energy-efficient amid growing AI demands. SpaceX is planning a public offering later this year, potentially raising $50 billion, which could be the largest IPO ever. Musk noted that NASA will contribute less than 5% of SpaceX’s revenue this year, with most income coming from its commercial Starlink system. SpaceX holds a $4 billion NASA contract under the Artemis program to land astronauts on the Moon using Starship.

Alongside SpaceX, Musk is also steering Tesla in a new direction. After helping build the global electric vehicle market, Tesla plans to spend $20 billion this year focusing on autonomous driving and robotics. To accelerate this shift, Tesla will discontinue two car models at its California factory to make room for producing Optimus humanoid robots.