What the SpaceX acquisition teaches us
Think universally but act locally
This week’s corporate chaos blended up one hell of a smoothie into space.
A rocket company announced it’s acquiring an AI company that had acquired a social media company.1
The acquisition recharts how SpaceX will get to its mission to make humanity multiplanetary2 by spinning up a new program to put “orbital data centers” in space. Most immediately, the merger has made many wonder whether SpaceX has lost course. Does the tech even make sense? What financial alchemy is this? Is any of this legal? How much geopolitical power does this company have now? But is anyone asking how much of it actually affects our daily lives?
Today I review why the company claims it merged, summarize the analysis from experts… and ask does any of this impact us today? No. But, like SpaceX, how far wayward from our course do we go in staying committed to fulfilling our own mission?
Has SpaceX lost its way?3 Well, Elon Musk’s letter4 announcing the acquisition has sparked analysts across technology, finance, law, and geopolitics to make sense of the merger. What sounds like fantasy, insider sources are pumping the acquisition into major outlets reporting it values SpaceX at $1T and xAI at $125B.5 This dethrones OpenAI and makes SpaceX the most valuable “startup” in the world. So we have to take it seriously…
The announcement claims that for SpaceX, launching AI satellites will speed up Starship improvements, the ship critical to making humanity multiplanetary.6 For xAI, creating “orbital data centers” escapes the terrestrial constraints of real estate, cooling, and energy.7
Technologists are scratching their heads, debating just how feasible orbital data centers are. Skeptics point out how they require gargantuan radiators, would increase orbital congestion, and would be difficult to repair.8
No one seems to know, but we all grew up watching the same Star Trek and reading Dune— so here’s to hoping there’s something here.
Zooming out, some see clarity in collapsing the two companies as the latest play in vertical integration to own every layer of its stack from manufacturing to distribution.9 Space is the transport layer. The sun is the fuel source. The frontier AI lab acts as the brains. And a social media platform is ready for digital distribution.
This opens up the promise of new products. Right now, Starlink satellite internet and space launch contracts drive revenue.10 Future promises are now being made of a new Starlink phone, a direct-to-device internet service, and a space-tracking service.11
Is all this the latest form of short-term vaporware to pump a stock?12 That’s an easy accusation. Or is it a masterclass in long-term thinking “where t reaches infinity”?13 Only if it works out. Could this latest move of heroic capitalism—heralded as an act of humanity by harnessing true solar power—save us from mass extinction?14 A lot of assumptions in there. Let’s keep moving.
Let’s talk money. Financiers seem to be driven by wanting some daily injection of anxiety from news. Well, they’re in luck because there’s even more uncertainty now about how the planned IPO—set to a record-breaking $50 billion later this year—will shake out.
Current SpaceX investors are wary of what the acquisition means because their shares are at risk of being diluted.1516 Future IPO investors now see a once-clean story more complicated. This was a space company with nearly-a-monopoly on the satellite launch market and new LEO space internet. Now the public offering will have to pitch an unprofitable A.I. lab and controversial social media site.17 Booyah? xAI shareholders (also once X holders) are likely the most satisfied; their stock is converted into SpaceX shares and the IPO is likely to boost their value.18
Investors with money tied up in the NASDAQ and other large indices are anxious. SpaceX is requesting expedited inclusion in major stock indices like the NASDAQ—typically a process taking months to years—arguing this would prevent early sell-offs.19
Can’t forget about the law. Anti-trust watchers are seeing SpaceX amassing monopolistic market power in various extraterrestrial markets.20 With the acquisition, SpaceX applied to the Federal Communications Commission to launch one million “orbital data centers” to power its AI ambitions.21 This is the leader in the market right now, going from 9,600 Starlink satellites to a million.22 Everyone else is playing catch-up already. Expect more investigations.
In geopolitics, SpaceX is among large tech companies that have real power to shape global affairs—rivaling powerful countries. Fancy words to describe them, like “company-states” to reference the days of the Dutch East India Company,23 are being revived alongside new slick ones like technopolarity: powerful tech companies possess outsized sovereignty in the digital world and influence traditional physical paradigms.24
SpaceX’s executives can say they have real power thanks to Starlink: fast satellite internet whose terminals can deploy easily in edge, harsh environments. AI-enabled space computing only compounds that influence future.
Internet access, independent of government infrastructure, changes the fog of war. After Russia invaded, a plea from the Ukrainian deputy foreign minister on X prompted Musk to provide Starlink terminals for free— which proved to be critical satellite connectivity during the onset of the Russian invasion in February of 2022.25 Later in September 2022, Musk secretly ordered his engineers not to turn on Starlink near the Crimean coast to help prevent a sneak attack on a Russian fleet.26 Elon Musk’s logic was: help defend, don’t help attack. And most recently, Iranian protesters used roughly 50,000 smuggled Starlink terminals to get around a government that digitally silenced a country of 90 million people.27
Reading all of this captures the imagination and keeps us informed, but will this news change your daily life? What we eat for breakfast, who we spend time with, or what brings us joy… How long do we have to wait until these changes start affecting us?28 They will, but I’m not sure this week’s news affects us today.
Any useful AI-native, space-connected devices lies years away. Harnessing the power of the sun, making Moon factories, and getting to Mars lies even further beyond. The forthcoming largest IPO in history will disrupt everyone’s savings in the market, but so will hundreds of other macro events that captivate investors on Wall Street. Private corporate leaders are shaping global affairs alongside democratically-elected world leaders and autocrats…
Can we influence any of this? If not, why do we let it trouble us? It’s fun to think universally, but I have to remind myself to act locally.
The SpaceX acquisition can be a helpful lesson for maintaining commitment to our life’s own missions. We are also a Starship with dreams propelling us to faraway destinations. Along the way, we will face detours—new relationships, cities, jobs—that all present opportunities to grow and obstacles to overcome. SpaceX has turned to space computing to ultimately help get humans off Earth…
Can you maintain the mission, and noble in that pursuit, even if you rechart course along the way?
The ship on which Theseus sailed with the youths and returned in safety, the thirty-oared galley, was preserved by the Athenians down to the time of Demetrius Phalereus. They took away the old timbers from time to time, and put new and sound ones in their places, so that the vessel became a standing illustration for the philosophers in the mooted question of growth, some declaring that it remained the same, others that it was not the same vessel.29
SpaceX. “xAI Joins SpaceX.” SpaceX, https://www.spacex.com/updates#xai-joins-spacex.
SpaceX. "Mission." SpaceX, https://www.spacex.com/mission.
“SpaceX Acquires xAI, Plans 1 Million Satellite Constellation to Power It.” Ars Technica, https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/02/spacex-acquires-xai-plans-1-million-satellite-constellation-to-power-it/.
SpaceX. “xAI Joins SpaceX.” SpaceX, https://www.spacex.com/updates#xai-joins-spacex.
“Musk’s SpaceX and xAI merge to make world’s most valuable private company”BBC News, Feb 3 2026, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq6vnrye06po. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.
SpaceX. "Starship." SpaceX, https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/starship.
SpaceX. “xAI Joins SpaceX.” SpaceX, https://www.spacex.com/updates#xai-joins-spacex.
Grush, Loren. “AI Data Centers in Space: Are They Actually Feasible?” Bloomberg, 13 Jan. 2026, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-13/ai-data-centers-in-space-are-they-actually-feasible. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.
“Why Is the US Space Industry So Obsessed with Vertical Integration?” Aviation Week Network, https://aviationweek.com/space/commercial-space/why-us-space-industry-so-obsessed-vertical-integration-0.
“Exclusive: SpaceX Generated $8 Billion Revenue Last Year.” Yahoo Finance, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-spacex-generated-8-billion-213458153.html.
“Starlink Fuels SpaceX Growth with Potential Phone, More Internet Services.” Reuters, 5 Feb. 2026, https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/starlink-fuels-spacex-growth-with-potential-phone-more-internet-services-2026-02-05/.
Silverman, Jacob. "Why Elon Musk's Latest Mega Merger Is Little More than Vaporware." The Nation, 4 Feb. 2026, https://www.thenation.com/article/economy/elon-musk-xai-spacex-merger/.
Scholl, Blake [@bscholl]. "Lots of Elon's thinking appeared bizarre to me until I realized that he thinks in the limit as t approaches infinity. At that point, the only thing that matters is physics first principles. When I try on this thinking method, I replicate many of his conclusions." X (formerly Twitter), 3 Feb. 2026, 11:17 a.m.,
“Kardashev Scale.” Encyclopædia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/science/Kardashev-scale. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.
“Tesla Slips Premarket; Gary Black Flags 35% Dilution Risk in Possible SpaceX Merger.” MSN, https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/tesla-slips-premarket-gary-black-flags-35-dilution-risk-in-possible-spacex-merger/ar-AA1VtInD.
“Will Elon Musk Really Merge SpaceX with X?” Yahoo Finance, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-really-merge-spacex-173356024.html.
“SpaceX and xAI Merger.” The New York Times, 3 Feb. 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/business/dealbook/spacex-xai-merger.html.
“Elon Musk Says SpaceX Has Acquired xAI.” The Wall Street Journal, https://www.wsj.com/tech/elon-musk-says-spacex-has-acquired-xai-038a4072.
“SpaceX Seeks Early Index Entry as It Prepares Massive IPO.” The Wall Street Journal, https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/spacex-seeks-early-index-entry-as-it-prepares-massive-ipo-8445ed59.
“SpaceX Seeks FCC Approval for Orbital Data Centers.” BBC News, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cyv5l24mrjmo.
Carr, Brendan [@BrendanCarrFCC]. “The FCC welcomes and now seeks comment on the SpaceX application for Orbital Data Centers. The proposed system would serve as a first step towards becoming a Kardashev II-level civilization and serve other purposes, according to the applicant.” X (formerly Twitter), 4 Feb. 2026, 3:02 p.m., https://twitter.com/BrendanCarrFCC/status/[tweet-id
“Starlink Constellation.” Satellite Map, https://satellitemap.space/constellation/starlink.
Stern, Philip J. The Company-State: Corporate Sovereignty and the Early Modern Foundations of the British Empire in India. Oxford University Press, 2012.
Bremmer, Ian. “The Technopolar Paradox: The Fusion of Tech and State Power.” Foreign Affairs, May 2025, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/technopolar-paradox-ian-bremmer-fusion-tech-state-power. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.
Schroeder, Emma. “Building the Digital Front Line: Understanding Big Tech Decision-Making in Ukraine.” Atlantic Council, 17 Nov. 2025, https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/report/building-the-digital-front-line/.
Roulette, Joey, Cassell Bryan-Low, and Tom Balmforth. “Musk Ordered Shutdown of Starlink Satellite Service as Ukraine Retook Territory from Russia.” Reuters, 25 July 2025, https://www.reuters.com/investigations/musk-ordered-shutdown-starlink-satellite-service-ukraine-retook-territory-russia-2025-07-25/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.
“How Iran Came Back Online with Starlink.” The New York Times, 15 Jan. 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/technology/iran-online-starlink.html.
Bessler, Max. “How Long Will You Wait for What?” Max Bessler (Substack), 26 Jan. 2026. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.
Plutarch. Plutarch’s Lives. Translated by Bernadotte Perrin, Harvard University Press, 1914.