Will SpaceX's IPO fund life on Mars — and a trillionaire?
SpaceX is launching history's biggest public listing, propelling Elon Musk's wealth into the stratosphere. DW explores whether the firm's out-of-this-world ambitions are truly cosmic or
SpaceX is launching history's biggest public listing, propelling Elon Musk's wealth into the stratosphere. DW explores whether the firm's out-of-this-world ambitions are truly cosmic or another black hole for investors. Elon Musk has a habit of turning science fiction into reality. From reusable rockets to autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots, the billionaire's ventures often achieve what was once thought impossible. With SpaceX's initial public offering (IPO), he's aiming for even bigger milestones. The company, which has stayed fiercely private for 24 years, is now preparing to go public. In an S1 filing to US regulators on Wednesday, which runs to hundreds of pages, SpaceX plans to raise roughly $75 billion (€64.5 billion) from new investors, which would value the company at up to $1.75 trillion. Not bad for a firm that is still loss-making and which Musk — already the world's richest man — will effectively still control. SpaceX believes a million people could live on Mars in the future Image: Steve Nesius/REUTERS Colonizing Mars, asteroid mining, orbital AI data centers Musk wants SpaceX to do more than send astronauts into space. He plans to build the infrastructure to secure the future of human life beyond Earth. The ultimate goal, Musk has said, is to create self-sustaining cities on Mars that could be home to up to a million people. To achieve that, SpaceX plans to use Starship — its giant reusable spacecraft — to make the first uncrewed voyages by 2030. The one-way journey to the Red Planet covers about 140 million miles on average and takes six to nine months.
The initial missions will test landing systems and begin setting up basic infrastructure, with crewed voyages to follow a few years later. SpaceX also wants to use resources on celestial bodies much closer to Earth to support humanity's multi-planetary expansion. Musk believes that asteroids, which fly through space on shifting orbits, could one day be mined. The near-zero gravity on asteroids makes it far easier and cheaper to land on them and extract materials. However, large-scale asteroid mining of platinum, nickel, gold and ice (water) — all vital for supporting life, building habitats and producing fuel on Mars — won't be achieved until the 2040s or beyond, space industry analysts have predicted. A crucial first stepping stone, however, will be the moon, which is only a three-day trip from Earth. SpaceX envisions habitats, factories and fuel depots could be built on the moon — a much cheaper option than launching tons of materials from Earth. Data centers in space: Solution or disaster? To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Musk also believes space has an answer to one of the biggest problems facing artificial intelligence (AI) — the enormous amount of power and cooling required for massive data centers to handle billions of user requests at once. Instead of building more of these power-hungry facilities on Earth, SpaceX has floated the idea of placing giant AI supercomputers in orbit on large arrays of satellites. These data centers could use unlimited sunlight for energy and the cold vacuum of space for free cooling, making large-scale AI training far cheaper and more efficient than on our home planet.
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