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SpaceX shifts focus to lunar city, Mars project delayed

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Musk cites civilization's future, Moon is faster than Mars

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SpaceX plans uncrewed lunar landing by March 2027

(Updates throughout, adds background)

Feb 8 (Reuters) - Elon Musk said on Sunday that SpaceX

has shifted its focus to building a "self-growing city" on the

moon, which could be ‌achieved in less than 10 years.

SpaceX still intends to start on Musk's long-held ambition

of a city on Mars ​within five to seven years, he wrote on his X

social media platform, "but the ‍overriding priority is securing

the future of civilization and the Moon is ⁠faster."

Musk's comments echo ⁠a Wall Street Journal report on Friday,

stating that SpaceX has told investors it would prioritize going

to the moon ‌and attempt a trip to Mars at ​a later time,

targeting March 2027 for an uncrewed lunar landing.

As recently as last year, Musk said that he aimed to send an

uncrewed mission ⁠to Mars by the end of 2026.

The ‍U.S. faces ​intense competition from China in the race to

return humans to the moon this decade. Humans have not visited

the lunar surface since the Apollo 17 mission ‍in 1972.

Less than a week ago, Musk announced that SpaceX acquired the

artificial intelligence company he also leads, xAI, in a deal

that values the rocket and satellite company at $1 trillion and

the artificial intelligence outfit at $250 billion.

Proponents of the move view it as a way for SpaceX to

bolster its plans for space-based data centers, which Musk sees

as ​more ‍energy efficient than terrestrial facilities as the

demand for compute power soars with AI development.

SpaceX is hoping a public offering later this year could

raise as much ​as $50 billion, which could make it the largest

public offering in history.

Earlier on Sunday, Musk shared the company's first Super

Bowl ad, promoting its Starlink Wi-Fi service.

Even as Musk reorients SpaceX, he is also pushing his

publicly traded company, Tesla, in a new direction.

After virtually building the global electric vehicles

market, Tesla is now planning to spend $20 billion this year as

part of an effort to pivot ​to autonomous driving and robots.

To speed up the shift, Musk said last month Tesla is ending

production of two car models at its California factory to make

room for manufacturing its Optimus humanoid robots.