Self-proclaimed eccentric billionaire Elon Musk is asking SpaceX investors to believe the company is going to take humanity into a global utopia, because… of course he is.
The richest man on earth is calling SpaceX the future landlord of space, AI, satellites, cloud compute, mining, and even half the solar system since he always needs extra drama.
The company is being tied to a possible $1.8 trillion valuation, while an IPO filing previously reported by Cryptopolitan said its total addressable market is $28.5 trillion, which is literally larger than one-fifth of the world economy.
“Any failure or delay in the development of Starship at scale or in achieving the required launch cadence, reusability and capabilities thereof would delay or limit our ability to execute our growth strategy,” the filing interestingly said.
Elon Musk is tilting SpaceX’s focus on $23 trillion corporate AI market
The biggest part of SpaceX’s pitch is corporate AI, a market the aforementioned filing values at $22.7 trillion. If SpaceX took the whole corporate AI market through orbital data centers and kept a 30% software-style margin, that would mean about $7 trillion in profit.
For Elon and SpaceX, rockets are the base, satellites are the cash machine, AI is the giant prize, and orbital data centers are the bridge between both worlds. Space mining sits a bit out, where the spreadsheet starts acting like it had three energy drinks.
Over-hyped market claims have burned investors before. Uber Technologies (UBER) did something similar before its 2019 IPO. It told investors its total market could reach $12.3 trillion. That included $5.7 trillion from ride-hailing, with the rest coming from freight and food delivery. But the company then had to prove what part of that world it could actually own.
That is the same thing going for SpaceX, because yes, the company has real power in launch and satellites, but the IPO case reaches into markets that do not yet look like normal operating businesses.
To me, it’s evident that Elon is setting huge targets so teams build many major businesses at once. And the harsher version is that a sky-high valuation needs sky-high math.
SpaceX widens the gap with Europe while Elon’s private control faces investor questions
For Europe, SpaceX seems like a seal on its fate in this potential future global utopia. I mean, SpaceX launched 170 rockets last year. Europe launched eight. That difference gives SpaceX a clear opening in a region with major government space demand and old satellite systems that need replacing.
European leaders want sovereignty and “strategic autonomy,” but their space system is tied up in politics. ArianeGroup, the private maker of the Ariane 6 heavy rocket, employs 8,700 people across France and Germany and receives up to €340 million in yearly support.
In 2025, ArianeGroup placed about 16 tonnes of payload in orbit, while SpaceX placed more than 2,400 tonnes into orbit, literally more than a 100-to-one gap.
Then there is the governance problem. In January 2018, Elon needed $100 million and borrowed from SpaceX. Then between 2019, 2020, and 01, he borrowed $500 million in total.
Internal SpaceX documents obtained by The New York Times allegedly showed interest rates from below 1% to nearly 3%, with Elon repaying the loans by the end of 2021. The thing is though, under SEC’s laws, public companies can’t just give executives loans like that.
Everyone knows SpaceX consistently helps other Elon-linked companies. It lent money to Tesla (TSLA) when the carmaker needed cash, put funds into SolarCity, and bought xAI, his cash-hungry AI company.
Some investors, including Founders Fund, co-founded by Peter Thiel, had concerns at times that Elon’s interests came before other shareholders.
“There were a few cases where one company was doing considerably better than another, and I borrowed money,” he said in a 2016 interview. “If I ask investors to put money in, then I feel morally I should put money in as well. I should not ask people to eat from the fruit bowl if I have not myself been willing to eat from the fruit bowl.”
Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/elon-musk-spacex-building-a-global-utopia/
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