SpaceX had resisted going public for years, with Elon Musk even stating, "We won't IPO unless flying to Mars becomes routine." However, this stance recently underwent a complete 180-degree turn, confirmed last year...Preparing to push forward with SpaceX's IPOLater, The Wall Street JournalExclusive reportIt has been pointed out that Elon Musk is planning to take SpaceX public as early as July this year.
Why the sudden rush? The answer is just two words: AI.
Building a "space AI data center" is burning through money at a rate comparable to a rocket.
The report points out that the biggest driving force that prompted Elon Musk to change his mind was his obsession with "building solar-powered AI data centers in space".
This concept sounds like science fiction (and crazy), using the endless solar energy in space to power power-intensive AI computing and having data centers orbiting the Earth. While many engineers were skeptical, Elon Musk believes it's feasible after his team made a breakthrough last fall and hopes to be the first company to do so.
However, building and launching tens of thousands of satellites equipped with AI computing capabilities is technically extremely difficult and incredibly expensive. SpaceX executives believe that the fastest and easiest way to raise these hundreds of billions of dollars is to go public and raise funds while the US IPO market is recovering.
Facing OpenAI and Jeff Bezos, they can't afford to lose at the starting line.
Besides his technological ambitions, the actions of his competitors, and the difficulties in developing xAI, Elon Musk is clearly feeling anxious.
• Sam Altman (OpenAI):It was reported last year that they considered acquiring rocket company Stoke Space with the intention of deploying satellites equipped with AI capabilities.
• Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin):Last October, it was publicly stated that moving the data center to orbit was a reasonable decision.
• xAI's dilemma:Elon Musk's AI company xAI still lags far behind OpenAI and Google in terms of revenue and user numbers.
Sources familiar with the matter revealed that Elon Musk hopes SpaceX can go public before OpenAI and Anthropic, which may IPO this year.
SpaceX's IPO = xAI's ATM?
The IPO is not only for SpaceX itself, but also to support xAI. Reports suggest that if SpaceX successfully launches its data center, xAI will become a major customer. Furthermore, the capital raised after the IPO can serve as a safety net for xAI; SpaceX may even directly invest in xAI, and Elon Musk may pledge SpaceX stock to inject capital into xAI, enabling it to catch up with its competitors in the computing power war.
In fact, SpaceX had already agreed to invest $2 billion in xAI last July to alleviate xAI's massive cash burn.
Starship is key.
However, all of this hinges on the success of Starship, a fully reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle. These orbital data center satellites are specifically designed and optimized for this super-heavy rocket. Although test flights have been underway for nearly three years, no actual payloads have yet been deployed. Therefore, Starship will be a crucial factor in the smooth progress of SpaceX's future development.
