Tesla, Inc. CEO Musk's rocket company SpaceX accelerates the listing process and aims to build the world's first in-orbit AI data center.

According to reports, the CEO of Tesla, Inc. (TSLA.US), Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX is intensifying its preparations for going public, aiming to be the first to send AI computing facilities into space amidst a crowded landscape of AI data centers by various companies. Sources claim that Musk hopes SpaceX will become the first company globally to deploy AI data centers in orbit, and the hundreds of billions of dollars needed to achieve this goal will likely involve IPO financing. The idea of placing AI data centers in near-Earth orbit has long been questioned due to high technical difficulty and strict requirements for energy and cooling, especially the plan to rely on CECEP Solar Energy for power and continuously orbit the Earth. Reports indicate that this concept has been gaining momentum for the past year, with Musk heavily invested in it and seeing it as a key direction for SpaceX's future strategy. Sources reveal that Musk also sees SpaceX going public as an important pathway to support his AI startup company xAI. Earlier reports stated that SpaceX invested approximately $2 billion in xAI in July of last year, which was one of its first major external investments in an AI company publicly disclosed. Earlier this month, xAI announced the completion of its Series E financing round, raising $20 billion, higher than the market's previous expectations of $15 billion. Although xAI responded to reports by stating that "traditional media is lying," and SpaceX did not comment on the matter, many industry insiders believe that if SpaceX successfully enters the capital market, the cash flow generated and the valuation premium will significantly enhance xAI's competitiveness in computing power, model training, and commercialization. Currently, xAI still lags behind key indicators in terms of revenue scale and user base compared to OpenAI and Anthropic, and is also behind Alphabet's (GOOG.US, GOOGL.US) Gemini model under Alphabet Inc. Class C. Reports suggest that Musk hopes SpaceX will complete the IPO before these AI giants. Reports indicate that SpaceX is preparing to select an investment bank to lead the IPO, with Musk expressing to those around him that he hopes to complete the IPO by July of this year at the earliest. Previously, SpaceX executives have reiterated numerous times that the company will not go public until regular flights to Mars are achieved, but this stance has clearly shifted. Musk has previously publicly complained about the regulatory and legal pressures of operating a publicly traded company, particularly during his time managing Tesla, Inc., where he clashed with regulatory bodies and courts on issues like compensation. However, with the rising importance of AI and space strategies, SpaceX's attitude towards going public has notably become more practical. Former SpaceX employees revealed that the company has been developing key technologies such as compute nodes over the years, preparing to build an AI satellite network. By the fall of last year, with increased resource allocation, SpaceX made a breakthrough in "how to build and launch space data centers," turning this originally long-term goal into a "highly urgent matter" by mid-last year. At the same time, competitors are also accelerating their efforts. OpenAI founder Altman considered deploying space computing power through collaboration or acquisition of rocket startups last year; Amazon.com, Inc. founder Bezos also publicly stated that moving data centers to orbit "makes logical sense." Musk himself has repeatedly stated on his social platform X that AI satellites powered by CECEP Solar Energy are the future direction. Analysts point out that the real challenge lies in execution. To deploy thousands of AI data center satellites, SpaceX must first ensure that its new generation heavy rocket "Starship" achieves stable operation. The rocket has been undergoing test flights for nearly three years, but has not yet carried out commercial payload missions. Reports suggest that SpaceX is expected to conduct a test flight of an upgraded version of Starship soon.