Elon Musk Changes Course: Moon Cities a Priority, Mars Later 

JAKARTA - Elon Musk is again scrambling the map of the future of space. The founder of SpaceX said his company is now prioritizing the development of "self-growing cities" on the Moon. This is a target that he believes can be achieved in less than 10 years, while the long-term ambition of building a city on Mars was downgraded one level in the priority list.

"SpaceX still intends to start a city on Mars in five to seven years, but its main priority is to secure the future of civilization and the Moon faster," Musk wrote on the X social media platform, Sunday, February 8.

This statement confirms the Wall Street Journal report last weekend that SpaceX had told investors that the company's main focus was the Moon mission, with plans for an unmanned landing in March 2027. This change of direction is quite a contrast to Musk's statement last year targeting an unmanned mission to Mars by the end of 2026.

SpaceX's move is also inseparable from the geopolitical context. The United States is racing against China in an effort to return humans to the Moon this decade. The last time humans set foot on the Moon's surface was on the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, more than half a century ago. In this landscape, the Moon is seen not only as a scientific goal, but also as a strategic foothold.

On the business side, SpaceX is in a more aggressive phase. Last week, Musk announced that SpaceX acquired the artificial intelligence company xAI, which he also led. The transaction valued SpaceX at around $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion, bringing the combined value to $1.25 trillion.

Supporters of this move see the acquisition of xAI as a strategy to strengthen Musk's plan to build a space-based data center. Musk has repeatedly referred to computing facilities in orbit as an option that is "more energy efficient" than data centers on Earth, amid a surge in computing needs due to the development of AI.

SpaceX is also rumored to be preparing an initial public offering or IPO, which could potentially be carried out this year. The company hopes to raise funds of up to 50 billion US dollars, a figure that if achieved will make it the largest IPO in the history of the global capital market.

In a separate discussion at X on Monday, Musk confirmed that SpaceX's dependence on the US government is relatively small. "NASA will contribute less than 5% of SpaceX's revenue this year," he said. He added, "most of SpaceX's revenue comes from the Starlink commercial system."

Even so, SpaceX remains NASA's main contractor in the Artemis program with a contract worth around $4 billion to land astronauts on the Moon using the Starship vehicle.

Starlink itself is now the backbone of the company's cash flow, and has even just been promoted through SpaceX's first Super Bowl ad highlighting the satellite Wi-Fi service.

While SpaceX is staring at the Moon, Musk is also pushing for a major transformation at Tesla. After building a global electric vehicle market, Tesla now plans to allocate around $20 billion this year to switch to autonomous vehicles and robots.

To accelerate the move, Musk said last month Tesla would stop production of two car models at its California factory to make room for the manufacture of the Optimus humanoid robot.

With the Moon as the new priority, Mars as a medium-term plan, and a giant IPO in sight, Musk once again showed that his vision is not just about technology, but about speed. In his logic, the future of civilization does not wait, and the Moon is considered the fastest route to get there.