--- title: "Elon Musk Announces Huge Change: Self-Growing City on Moon Now Top Priority at SpaceX" description: "Elon Musk said \"SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon,\" despite Mars being his top priority until now." date: "2026-02-09" modified: "2026-02-09" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/space/elon-musk-change-city-moon" categories: - "NASA" - "Off-World" - "Space" - "SpaceX" - "Starship" --- # Elon Musk Announces Huge Change: Self-Growing City on Moon Now Top Priority at SpaceX ![Elon Musk said "SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon," despite Mars being his top priority until now.]() *Getty / Futurism* Just over a year ago, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made it [abundantly clear]() he was not interested in visiting the Moon. In January 2025, the [height of his bromance]() with president Donald Trump, he [tweeted]() that the "Moon is a distraction," asserting instead that "we're going straight to Mars." He has [lambasted NASA's efforts to return to the lunar surface](), accusing its Artemis program of being "extremely inefficient as it is a jobs-maximizing program, not a results-maximizing program." For many years now, Musk has made it his [number one goal]() to establish a city on Mars, using [1,000]() of the company's Starship rockets in an interstellar colonization effort that was supposed to kick off [back in 2024](). Having completely missed that goal, the mercurial entrepreneur appears to have had a major change of heart, contradicting his earlier statements by arguing that the plan is now to go to the Moon and build a city there after all. As it turns out, the Moon is far easier to settle than Mars, a plan that will likely prove a much easier pill to swallow for his investors — yet another instance of Musk significantly moving the goalposts after years of bluster and hype. "For those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve that in less than ten years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years," he [tweeted]() on Sunday. The richest man in the world's colony on the Moon has become priority number one, since the "overriding priority" is to secure the "future of civilization" — and getting to the Moon, which is many orders of magnitude closer to us than Mars, is "faster." The timing of the admission is particularly noteworthy. Following the space company [acquiring Musk's CSAM-distributing AI startup xAI]() earlier this month, the goal is to go public at an eye-watering and record-breaking [valuation of $1.25 trillion](). It's unclear whether Musk's abrupt reversal was in any way related to potential investor pressure ahead of the IPO, but given his enormous personal interest in going all-in on Mars — the Moon be damned — it's a tectonic shift in priorities. SpaceX's role in NASA's return to the surface of the Moon remains unclear. The space agency initially tapped Musk's company's Starship to deliver astronauts to the lunar South Pole from orbit. In October, however, NASA officials suggested the agency [may opt for SpaceX's competitor, Blue Origin instead](), given ongoing technical issues hampering Starship's development. NASA's Artemis 3 mission, the first planned crewed Moon landing in over half a century, is currently [scheduled for 2028](), but whether SpaceX can get Starship functional by then remains unknown. The company has yet to successfully launch the mammoth rocket to space and then successfully land, let alone demonstrate in-orbit refueling capabilities, which will be critical for Starship to visit the Moon and eventually Mars. In his latest tweet, Musk said that SpaceX hadn't given up on Mars, but won't start work on plans for a city there for another "five to seven years." Even on his social media platform X, which largely functions as an echo chamber of his most vocal supporters, his latest missive fell on flat ears. "You could actually use some of those obscene billions of dollars of money to improve life here on Earth," reads one [reply](), which received over 200 likes. "You know, reclaim desserts \[sic\] since you seem to love inhabitable places so much." **More on SpaceX:** [*SpaceX Just Bought Elon Musk’s CSAM Company*]() ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()