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'It’s going to happen,' Elon Musk says
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Elon Musk doubled down on SpaceX's ambition to build factories on the moon, declaring during the company's first quarterly earnings call on Tuesday (Aug. 4) that lunar manufacturing is inevitable. He said SpaceX will land massive tonnage on the moon and deploy robots to handle much of the construction. "We're going to build the factories on the moon," Musk told investors. "The robots will be helpful with that."
This vision was first outlined in February, when Musk announced SpaceX's purchase of xAI in a blog post. Tuesday's call reinforced that off-Earth manufacturing is a core priority for the company. The factories are intended to produce Starmind AI satellites, which SpaceX plans to operate in a million-strong constellation in Earth orbit before expanding deeper into space.
Musk envisions launching these locally built satellites from the lunar surface using electromagnetic mass drivers, essentially powerful rail guns. "I know it sounds, like, super sci-fi right now, but it's going to happen," he said. He added that a lunar mass accelerator, combined with solar and radiator production, could scale space-based intelligence to "1,000 times the economy of Earth" and perhaps even a million times.
Solar panels and radiators are critical Starmind components, and Musk is likely counting on Optimus, Tesla's humanoid robot, for the lunar labor force. He has previously said SpaceX will send Optimus units to Mars to prepare for human settlement. The robots and payloads would ride on Starship, SpaceX's fully reusable megarocket, which is gearing up for its 14th test flight.
CFO Bret Johnsen highlighted Starship's role during the call, noting it aims to quadruple payload capacity and cut launch costs by tenfold compared to the Falcon 9. He added that SpaceX is accelerating Raptor engine production and expanding launch infrastructure at Starbase and Cape Canaveral. "We continue to make progress building the infrastructure required to support thousands of Starship launches per year," he said.
Tuesday's call marked a milestone as SpaceX's first since going public in June via the richest IPO in history, raising $86 billion and valuing the company at $1.77 trillion. Only six American firms had larger market caps at the time. The earnings report covered the second quarter, with revenue growth tied to launch demand and Starlink expansion.
Musk's lunar factory plan still faces enormous technical hurdles, but Starship's rapid development suggests progress may come faster than expected. As SpaceX scales its constellation and Starship flight rate, the moon could become a staging ground for a new industrial era. For now, the company is betting that science fiction will become routine.
